In a post on X, the Member of Parliament Magnus Jacobsson (KD) writes about the floods in Spain that they have “removed dams that slow down the progress of the water”. The post is illustrated by a map of the area around Valencia.
He also writes that: “The blue dots are dams that have been decommissioned. One can think about what would have happened if these were still there.”
But what he writes is not true. The blue dots show obsolete fish or river barriers – not decommissioned dams.
The map of the dams that have actually been demolished according to Spanish authorities’ data is considerably sparser – and in all cases these are very small dams and assault defense which was demolished, reports the Spanish fact-checking site Damn Climo.
When SVT contacts Magnus Jacobsson (KD) about the inaccuracies in his post, he publishes an explanation on X. He later sends a similar comment to SVT:
“Now I have received 3 explanations for the picture: partially torn out dams, existing dams, deficient dams. It was not the intention to spread something that was not correct, but I have tried to raise the debate about what risks happening if you remove dams at the same time that we will get more precipitation due to a warmer climate, as is evident in the twitter thread.”
Member of Parliament Jan Ericson (M) has also shared the post on his X account. When SVT asks him how he views spreading incorrect information, he replies:
“I shared the thread because the reasoning about the importance of dams and wetlands is important in the climate debate. Pictures and illustrations are the responsibility of the person who wrote the tweet.”
At the time of writing, the post has been seen by over 275,000 on X.