By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
The world’s freshwater crisis deepened in 2025, with rivers recording one of their driest years in 35 years, abnormal flows persisting for seven consecutive years, land-based water storage declining over the past decade and glaciers losing mass worldwide for a fourth straight year, with Asia and Africa bearing the brunt of water-related disasters, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its latest State of Global Water Resources report.
The report warns that the global water cycle is becoming increasingly erratic, swinging between extremes of too little and too much water, with potentially serious consequences for communities, agriculture and economies.
According to the WMO, 2025 was one of the driest years for global river discharge in 35 years, with below-normal flows recorded across 36 per cent of the world’s river basin area. For the seventh consecutive year, river basins experiencing “normal” conditions remained in a clear minority, accounting for only 34-38 per cent compared with an average of 46 per cent during 1991-2020.
The report also found that terrestrial water storage — water held in groundwater, lakes, rivers, soil moisture, vegetation, snow and ice — has been declining since the mid-2010s.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said groundwater and glaciers, traditionally regarded as the planet’s long-term water reserves, were showing increasing signs of depletion.
“We are depleting that savings account,” Saulo said, noting that global terrestrial water storage has shown a persistent decline since around 2014-16.
Glacier loss has continued for a fourth consecutive year across all major glaciated regions. Between 2023 and 2025, glaciers lost a cumulative 1,400 gigatonnes of water, equivalent to the water needed to fill about 560 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The loss poses immediate risks, including floods and other hazards from rapid ice melt, while threatening long-term water supplies for millions of people dependent on glacier-fed rivers.
The report also highlighted growing groundwater stress. Nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showed conditions outside their historical norms in 2025, with groundwater conditions shifting further towards deficit compared with 2024.
At the same time, water-related disasters continued to intensify. National meteorological and hydrological services reported record-breaking floods and droughts in each of the past five years, with some regions experiencing little or no recovery time between successive extreme events.
Asia and Africa have been particularly hard hit, together accounting for at least half of recorded water-related extreme events and more than 80 per cent of associated reported deaths over the past five years.
River conditions varied sharply across regions. South and Southeast Asia and parts of northern South America recorded above-normal to much-above-normal river discharge in 2025. In Africa, several basins including the Senegal, Niger, Lake Chad, Orange and Limpopo saw above-normal flows, while the Nile, Congo and Zambezi experienced much-below-normal discharge.
The WMO said water data availability has improved significantly, with the report now covering 15 hydrological variables compared with three in its first edition in 2021. However, major gaps remain in Africa and Asia, even though these regions are among the most vulnerable to water-related extremes.
“Water respects no borders,” Saulo said, calling for shared data, common standards and stronger early-warning systems to manage growing water risks.