The World Meteorological Organization, WMO, has stated that 2025 was one of the driest years in decades for rivers around the world.
She further highlighted the decline in water reserves on the Earth’s surface and raised concerns about future water sufficiency.
“Earth’s water reservoirs – lakes, vegetation, ice, snow – have been declining for a decade,” according to the WMO report on the state of global water resources.
“We are depleting our savings account. Global water reserves on land have been on a downward trend since 2014-16, a continuous trend, a warning that has been going on for a decade,” said UN Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.
According to OBM data, lower-than-normal flows were recorded in more than a third of the world’s river basins, in a year that ranks among the driest for rivers globally in 35 years of data collection.
However, some river basins – such as in parts of South Asia – experienced an excess amount of water, indicating that the water cycle is becoming increasingly unstable and unpredictable, as the report notes.
At the same time, in 2025, a major loss of glaciers was observed in all regions of the world for the fourth consecutive year, which will lead to long-term uncertainty regarding water resources.