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Geneva: The planet\u2019s water cycle is becoming increasingly erratic, swinging between too little and too much, the United Nations warned Thursday, with an unprecedented El Nino expected to exacerbate the long-term trend.<\/p>\n
Last year was among the driest for the world\u2019s rivers in over three decades, the UN\u2019s World Meteorological Organization said in a report.<\/p>\n
In 2025 — one of the warmest years on record — glaciers also shrank across all regions, even as groundwater levels in many parts of the world are in multi-year decline, it found.<\/p>\n
Overall, the WMO\u2019s annual State of Global Water Resources report showed that the Earth\u2019s freshwater storage — the total amount of water stored in groundwater, lakes and rivers, soil moisture, vegetation and ice and snow — continued a decade-long decline.<\/p>\n
Some elements of the water cycle change rapidly — like precipitation, river flow and soil moisture, responding to weather within days or weeks.<\/p>\n
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo voiced particular concern about the decline in \u201cslow reserves\u201d, like groundwater and glaciers, which she said had traditionally served as the planet\u2019s \u201csavings account\u201d.<\/p>\n
They have served as \u201ca buffer that absorbs bad years so that a single drought or a single dry season does not translate directly into a water crisis\u201d, she told reporters.<\/p>\n
– \u2018Spending our reserves\u2019 –<\/p>\n
Now, \u201cwe are depleting that savings account\u201d, she warned. \u201cWe are spending our reserves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glaciers have also been shrinking at a precipitous rate, with 2025 marking the fourth consecutive year where they shed significant ice mass across all regions.<\/p>\n
Between 2023 and 2025, the report estimated that glaciers lost a cumulative global glacier mass of 1,400 gigatonnes of water — roughly equal to the water required to fill 560 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, or about a third of the world\u2019s annual freshwater withdrawals.<\/p>\n
\u201cGroundwater tells a similar story: nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showed conditions outside the historical norm in 2025,\u201d Saulo said.<\/p>\n
She highlighted that this was happening in parallel with \u201cmore water-related disasters\u201d.<\/p>\n
In particular, she pointed to the current El Nino pattern, which is expected to be the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago.<\/p>\n
El Nino is the warm phase of a natural climate cycle that occurs every two to seven years and is characterised by above average ocean temperatures across the Pacific, and brings worldwide changes in winds and rainfall patterns and erratic weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strengthening El Nino will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others,\u201d Saulo cautioned.<\/p>\n
\u2018Abnormal\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Already before El Nino hit, rivers worldwide were showing \u201cabnormal\u201d flows, WMO said, with 2025 among the three driest years for rivers in 35 years.<\/p>\n For a seventh year in a row, the number of river basins globally experiencing \u201cnormal\u201d conditions were in a clear minority in 2025.<\/p>\n Only around 36 percent saw normal flows, while an equal percentage saw below-normal discharge conditions and 21 percent were above normal, the report found.<\/p>\n The WMO stressed the importance of good data to map the developments in the water cycle, warning that significants gaps remained in hard-hit areas.<\/p>\n \u201cWeather respects no borders, and this is especially true for water,\u201d Saulo said, arguing for the importance of \u201cshared data, shared standards and shared early warnings\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cA river basin is fed by water upstream, often in another country,\u201d she pointed out.<\/p>\n And \u201ca glacier disaster in one country can lead to devastation in another as we saw with the recent tragedy of China and Nepal\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n