Authorities in Longyearbyen, the largest settlement on Svalbard in Norway's Arctic archipelago, have told about 2,600 residents not to drink tap water. The town lies roughly 1,300 kilometres from the North Pole and draws all of its water from Isdammen, an artificial reservoir about 2.5 kilometres long. The restriction began with a narrow warning in September 2024, when health authorities advised that infants under one year old should not be given the water. A year later, as manganese levels kept rising, the advice was extended to the entire population.
Some analyses recorded manganese of up to 1,000 micrograms per litre, twenty times the 50-microgram reference value set by Norwegian authorities. Readings taken in September 2025 showed manganese at 25 times the recommended level set by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Manganese was not the only problem. Analyses published by the local administration in April 2026 showed nickel at up to 30 micrograms per litre, against a limit of 20, while sulphate readings approached 1,000 milligrams per litre. Results published on 10 September 2026 showed that manganese, nickel and sulphate were still above the expected values. Manganese levels have since dropped, but the ban on drinking tap water remains in place because of the nickel and sulphate readings.
Researchers link the contamination to permafrost, the ground that normally stays frozen all year and is now thawing as the climate warms. Longyearbyen is warming five to seven times faster than the world average, and autumn temperatures there rise by up to 4 degrees Celsius a decade. Pyrite in the shale bedrock of the former mining town reacts with water and oxygen to produce acid, which then draws heavy metals out of the rock and into the water. Marjolaine Verret, a permafrost expert at the University Centre in Svalbard, described the mechanism.
“The combination of the thawing permafrost and the shale bedrock, which contains a mineral called pyrite, or fool's gold, is causing contamination of its water supply.”
The municipality set up a central tank of free purified water, filtered by the local brewery, where residents can refill containers at the local supermarket. An investigation was also launched. The local authorities are weighing a new water supply system, with filtration of Isdammen water and a desalination plant as an emergency option. Both options would be expensive and technically difficult because of Arctic conditions.
Mayor Terje Aunevik said Norwegians had always taken drinkable tap water for granted, and that residents now have to carry their water. He said manganese levels were no longer dangerous, but that government guidelines still had to be followed.
Researchers warn that similar problems could appear elsewhere in the Arctic, including northern Canada and Alaska, where metal-rich rocks and thawing permafrost exist side by side.
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Residents of Longyearbyen on Svalbard have been advised against drinking tap water since the whole population was included in the warning in September 2025. Scientists link the contamination of the Isdammen reservoir to thawing permafrost and the town's mining-era geology.
AI text based on reports by AGI, rmf24.pl, newsORF.at and other publishers. Published .