Norwegian clubs jump on board for Healthy Waters Clean-up Week

A host of Norwegian rowing clubs have thrown their support behind a new environmental project spearheaded by Olympian and World Rowing Healthy Waters Alliance Ambassador Martin Helseth, getting involved in cleaning up their local waterways.

As part of the World Rowing – WWF Healthy Waters Alliance initiative and coinciding with World Ocean Day on 8 June, several clubs around Norway took part in the Healthy Waters Clean-up week in early June. Collectively, they gathered hundreds of kilograms of rubbish from their lakes and rivers, including lost buoys from racing lines, tyres, and everyday plastic objects such as bottles and packaging.

Helseth teamed up with WWF Norway senior advisor for fisheries and marine conservation, Fredrik Myhre, to lead a clean-up of 50kg of rubbish around Norway’s national rowing facility on lake Årungen. Myhre also survived an outing in Helseth’s single scull.

At Ormsund Roklub south of Oslo, 14 participants including rowers and freedivers spent an evening cleaning underwater and around the shoreline of the club, which is on a small island. They collected 350kg of items, mostly tyres.

A similar-sized group cleaned up around Christiana Roklub in Oslo, collecting 200kg of rubbish, while at Oslo Roklubb, about 50kg of rubbish, mostly plastic, was picked up.

Bergen-based Fana Roklub got their juniors involved, with 18 junior rowers and their coach collecting 10 bags of plastic on their clean-up day on 1 June. South of Bergen, seven participants from Os Roklubb spent four hours cleaning at Vinddalsvatnet lake, discovering a depot of forgotten material for rowing and kayak races left from the 1990s.

The next stage of the project is the Oslo Fjord Restoration Day in August 2025, featuring habitat restoration involving a local non-governmental organisation and young people.

The World Rowing – WWF Healthy Waters Alliance encourages and facilitates national federations, rowing clubs and rowers as well as WWF offices, staff, and supporters to take action to protect and restore freshwater and coastal ecosystems. The aim is to create awareness about the threats and solutions, inspire and facilitate action, and enable active collaboration between the worlds of rowing and conservation.

See more at https://worldrowing.com/responsibility/sustainability/wwf-alliance/