State of Global Water Resources 2025:
India’s groundwater levels are declining persistently, according to the State of Global Water Resources 2025 report published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recently.
- It is annually published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
- It provides a comprehensive quantitative overview of global water resources, with a focus on hydrological variability and trends.
SGWR 2025 Highlights:
- Satellite observations and hydrological models showed that 42% of global land area had below-normal water storage in 2025.
- The measure covers water in rivers, streams and lakes, groundwater, soil moisture, snow and ice.
- Global terrestrial water storage has shown a declining trend since 2014–2016 — a persistent, decade-long signal.
- For the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass.
- The estimated loss during the 2025 hydrological year was about 408 gigatonnes, equivalent to roughly 1 millimetres of global sea-level rise.
- Central Asia, western Canada and the United States were among the regions recording particularly severe glacier losses.
- 2025 was one of the driest years for the world’s rivers in 35 years, with normal flows recorded across just 36% of global river basin area.
- Another 36% recorded below-normal or much-below-normal flows, while 21% had above-normal or much-above-normal flows. The remaining 7% was classified as having no data.
- The WMO found that the seven years from 2019 to 2025 had the smallest shares of river basins with normal flows since 1991. Those shares ranged from 34% to 38%, compared with an average of 46% over 1991–2020.
- Persistent groundwater deficits were observed during 2022–2025 in parts of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, India, southern Africa and Australia, with over-abstraction identified as an important driver in several regions.
- Nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showed conditions outside the historical norm in 2025, and the balance shifted further toward deficit compared with 2024, not toward recovery.
- Globally, 34 percent of groundwater observation stations reported below-normal to much-below-normal levels in 2025, compared with 25 per cent in 2024.
- Around 31 percent of observation stations reported above-normal to much-above-normal groundwater levels in 2025.
- Asia and Africa together accounted for at least half of all recorded water-related extreme events and more than 80% of reported associated deaths over the past five years
- India recorded below-normal terrestrial water storage in 2025, particularly across the northern part of the country.
- The report also found above- to much-above-normal reservoir inflows across India, while soil moisture was above or much above normal during both the December-February and June-August assessment periods.
- Among India’s major river systems, the Ganges, Godavari, Krishna and Indus recorded above-normal to much-above-normal discharge in 2025.
- However, the higher river flows did not translate into a broad recovery of India’s deeper water reserves.
- The WMO found persistent groundwater deficits in India during 2022-2025, with widespread below-normal to much-below-normal groundwater levels, particularly in northwestern India.
