World Meteorological Organization: 2025 Among the Driest Years for Rivers in Decades

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has declared that 2025 was one of the driest years in decades for rivers around the world. It further highlighted the decline of water reserves on the Earth’s surface, raising concerns about future water sufficiency.

“The Earth’s water reservoirs — lakes, vegetation, ice, snow — have been declining for a decade,” according to the WMO’s report on the state of global water resources.

The UN agency warned of the serious future impacts of this trend, as water reserves serve as a buffer for the planet in years of exceptionally low rainfall, like this year.

“We are depleting our savings account. Global terrestrial water reserves have been on a declining trend since 2014–16, a continuous trend, a warning that has lasted a decade,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

According to WMO data, below-normal flows were recorded in more than a third of the world’s river basins, in a year ranking among the driest for rivers globally in 35 years of data collection.

However, some river basins — such as in parts of South Asia — experienced excess water, showing that the water cycle is becoming ever more 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.