State of Global Water Resources 2025 Report
Why in News?
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) officially released the State of Global Water Resources 2025 report in Geneva on September 17, 2026.
About the Report
- Scope: It tracks the global water loop quantitatively, mapping metrics like river discharge, groundwater levels, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and the state of snow and ice (the cryosphere).
- Expanded Data: The report has grown dramatically over 5 years, now utilizing data from over 68 countries and 3,000+ river discharge stations (including heavy data contributions from nations like Canada).
Drying Global Rivers
- Historic Lows: Normal river flows were recorded across just 36% of the global river basin area in 2025.
- Abnormal Flows: Another 36% experienced below-normal or much-below-normal flows, while 21% saw above-normal or much-above-normal conditions.
- A 7-Year Trend: The seven-year window from 2019 to 2025 marked the fewest river basins with "normal" flows since 1991.
Groundwater Stress & Depletion
- Deficit Spikes: In 2025, 34% of monitored groundwater stations reported below-normal or much-below-normal water levels, climbing significantly from 25% in 2024.
- Global Hotspots: Long-term, multi-year groundwater deficits (2022–2025) were recorded heavily across India, the Middle East, the United States, Latin America, Europe, Australia, and Southern Africa.
- The Cause: Over-abstraction (drawing out more water than natural rain or environmental recharge can replace) is explicitly named as the primary driver behind these plunging water tables.
Terrestrial Water Storage & Glacier Melt
- Decade-Long Decline: Earth's total Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS)—the sum of all water found in soil, snow, ice, rivers, and groundwater—has been on a steady downward trajectory since 2014–2016.
- Land Dryness: Roughly 42% of the global land area exhibited below-normal water storage levels in 2025.
- Accelerating Ice Loss: For the fourth straight year, every major glaciated region on the planet experienced net ice mass loss.
- Sea-Level Rise: Glaciers shed an estimated 408 gigatonnes of ice during the 2025 hydrological year, single-handedly contributing about 1.1 mm to global sea-level rise. Severe losses were concentrated in Central Asia, western Canada, and the US.
Extreme Hydrological Events & Human Impact
- Erratic Swings: The water cycle is swinging violently between extremes of "too little" (droughts) and "too much" (flash floods).
- Vulnerable Zones: Asia and Africa remain the absolute epicentres for water disasters, collectively accounting for over 50% of water-related extreme events and over 80% of all reported deaths from these events over the past 5 years.
India-Specific Key Findings
- Northern Depletion: Northern and north-western India are experiencing critical, persistent groundwater depletion and below-normal terrestrial water storage.
- Agricultural/Societal Strain: Because India relies heavily on groundwater for irrigation, over-abstraction threatens long-term agricultural sustainability and drinking water security.
- According to details shared via UN Water updates, the WMO urges immediate international action to expand early warning coverage, invest in structural hydrological monitoring infrastructure, and execute stricter water-use regulations to halt over-extraction.
