World's Rivers Hit 35-Year Low In 2025
Fantastic Landscape — Francesco Guardi, ca. 1765
What Happened
A new WMO report finds global river discharge in 2025 was the lowest in 35 years, with below-normal flows across more than 36% of the world's basins. Glaciers lost mass for a fourth straight year, and nearly two-thirds of monitored groundwater wells sat outside historical norms.
Why It Matters
The WMO calls glaciers and snowpack the planet's savings account — the buffer that keeps one bad year from becoming a crisis. That account has been shrinking since 2014, and 2025 didn't bend the trend, it extended it. Asia and Africa together accounted for more than 80% of reported water-disaster deaths over the past five years. The report frames this as a slow system finally showing its math.
What's Next
WMO is calling for shared data and early-warning systems across borders, since river basins don't stop at them.