From Drought to Deluge WMO Report Highlights Increasingly Erratic Water Cycle

The State of Global Water Resources report highlights the cascading impacts of both water scarcity and excess, underscoring growing global challenges.

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In 2024, only one-third of river basins recorded normal conditions, while all glacier regions worldwide reported losses due to continued melting for the third consecutive year. The report emphasizes the urgent need for enhanced monitoring and greater data sharing to better understand and respond to these critical water-related issues.

The water cycle has become increasingly erratic and extreme, swinging between deluge and drought, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It highlights the cascading impacts of too much or too little water on economies and society.

The State of Global Water Resources 2024 report says only about one-third of the global river basins had "normal" conditions in 2024. The rest were either above or below normal - the sixth consecutive year of clear imbalance.

2024 was the third straight year with widespread glacier loss across all regions.

Many small-glacier regions have already reached or are about to pass the so-called peak water point - when a glacier's melting reaches its maximum annual runoff, after which this decreases due to glacier shrinkage.

The Amazon Basin and other parts of South America, as well as southern Africa were gripped by severe drought in 2024, whilst there were wetter-than-normal conditions in central, western and eastern Africa, parts of Asia and Central Europe, it says.