Lighthouse Journalism found a video being widely shared on social media platforms, which showcased water flowing from a dam. It was being claimed along with the video that due to a lack of a proper system, the water is flowing over the dam, as water to Pakistan has been stopped by India.
During the investigation, we found that the video features the Hirakud dam and is not associated with the Indus Water Treaty suspension.
Claim:
Instagram user Surinder Kashyap shared the video with the misleading claim.
Other users are also sharing the video with similar claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by uploading the video to the InVid tool. We then ran a reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the same.
We found the video on an Instagram handle, Mahendra Suman, uploaded on April 11.
We found a similar video without any text on YouTube. The title said: Hirakud Dam Alert for Opening Gates.
The video was uploaded three months ago.
We found similar videos on YouTube.
Hirakud Dam is built across the Mahanadi River about ten kilometers from Sambalpur in the state of Odisha. It is the longest earthen dam in the world.
India recently suspended a key river water-sharing treaty, the Indus Water Treaty, as tensions intensify between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam terrorist attack. However, the video being widely shared is not related to the Indus Water Treaty.
Conclusion: Old video of the opening of the gates of the Hirakud Dam in Odisha is being widely shared as recent, falsely linking it to the Indus Water Treaty suspension. The viral claim is misleading.
