A comprehensive assessment by the World Meteorological Organization reveals that global water resources reached critically low levels in 2025, marking one of the driest years for rivers worldwide in more than 30 years. The study examined the complete global water cycle, including river flows, groundwater, evaporation, land water storage, and snow and ice coverage. Freshwater reserves held on or beneath the ground—encompassing groundwater, lakes, rivers, snow, ice, and soil moisture—fell to 42% below normal across the world. Climate-driven shifts are creating increasingly erratic and unpredictable water patterns, with rivers alternating between severe scarcity and extreme abundance. The analysis found that approximately one-third of rivers maintained normal flow conditions in 2025, while 36% of global river basin areas experienced below-normal or significantly below-normal flows. Conversely, 21% of river basins saw above-normal or much-above-normal flows. This marks the seventh consecutive year in which river basins with normal conditions represented a minority, compared to a 46% average during the 1991-2020 baseline period.
Glacial regions continued their decline, with all 19 major glacial areas losing ice mass for the fourth consecutive year. The ice mass loss in 2025 alone totaled 400 gigatons, contributing 1.1 millimeters to global sea level rise. WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo noted that global terrestrial water storage has demonstrated a persistent declining trend since 2014-16, describing it as a long-term depletion of natural water reserves.
The consequences are already visible in vulnerable regions worldwide. Record-low water levels on the Danube River during the summer created an energy crisis in Hungary and Romania, forcing the shutdown of nuclear reactors that depend on river water for cooling. Major river systems face compounding threats: the Mississippi contends with pollution-induced dead zones and saltwater intrusion, African rivers struggle with severe droughts and pollution, and English rivers show no ecological health, burdened by sewage, agricultural runoff, and chemical contamination. Over the past five years, major river basins including the Amazon, La Plata, and systems across North America, Africa, central Asia, and the Middle East have experienced repeated below-normal flows.
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