GENEVA, 18th September, 2026 (WAM) -- The world is entering a period in which abnormal water supplies are becoming the norm, with river flows, groundwater and glaciers all showing signs of sustained disruption, the UN weather agency warned on Thursday.
“This is not a single bad year, but a persistent decade-long signal,” said Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), presenting the agency’s latest State of Global Water Resources report.
The assessment shows that 2025 was one of the driest years for river flows worldwide in 35 years, with below-normal discharge across 36% of the world’s river basin area.
It was also the seventh consecutive year in which rivers with historically “normal” flows were in a clear minority, underscoring what WMO describes as an increasingly erratic and unpredictable water cycle.
“Water-related extreme events continue to devastate communities and economies,” Saulo underscored.
Groundwater, glaciers, snow, soil moisture, lakes and other freshwater stored on land, act as a buffer during droughts and dry seasons. Saulo described these slower reserves as the planet’s “savings account”.
Traditionally, she explained, they have absorbed bad years so that a single dry season does not immediately become a water crisis.
“We are depleting that savings account,” she said, noting that terrestrial water storage has been declining since around 2014–2016, while groundwater levels in many regions have fallen over several years.
Nearly two-thirds of monitored groundwater wells were outside their normal range in 2025, with conditions shifting further towards deficit, than recovery.
There were, however, some positive signs. Parts of South America saw a partial recovery in water storage after a severe multi-year deficit, while central and southern Africa maintained much above-normal water levels across several major lakes.