UN report | Global water reserves are shrinking

Shrinked glacier in the Naran Valley in Pakistan in July 2016 Photo: AFP/Aamir Qureshi The continents are drying out. This emerges from a recently published balance sheet by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The National Weather Service Association notes that 2025 was one of the lowest years of ocean runoff since 1990. The amount of water stored on land in the form of ice, snow, groundwater, lakes and rivers has been decreasing since the middle of the last decade. There are even a number of rivers and large streams whose flow is decreasing despite greater amounts of precipitation in their catchment areas. This is particularly the case in very dry regions, according to a study published in the US journal Geophysical Research Letters at the end of August.

The cause is likely to be, among other things, increasing evaporation rates. The higher the air temperature, the more and faster water evaporates, and as the planet warms, the rate of evaporation also increases. In fact, it has been observed for some time that the water vapor content of the atmosphere is increasing. When it condenses in the air, it releases a not to be underestimated amount of energy, which is one of the engines for winds and storms. So more water vapor means stronger storms and, of course, heavier precipitation because more water can rain down.

This fits with the WMO's statement that the water cycle has become more erratic and therefore more unreliable, meaning that it fluctuates more between too little and too much, between low water and destructive floods.

For the fourth year in a row, all of the world's major glacial regions have lost ice mass.

This year, German chemical companies and other industries on the Rhine and Main have once again experienced what this can mean. Extremely low water levels in the rivers meant that the river barges could no longer be fully loaded, which in turn made freight significantly more expensive. This became a financial burden for many companies that are supplied with raw materials by inland shipping.

The main reason for the low water levels was the severe drought that large parts of Europe, with the exception of the northeast, suffered this summer. The shortcoming was particularly pronounced in the upper reaches of the Rhine in Switzerland, but all of southern Germany was also affected, which particularly worried pasture farmers in agriculture. Many had to buy feed for their livestock, according to the rural agriculture working group when asked. Even at the moment, hay from northern Germany is still being sold all the way to Austria, which means significant additional expenses for the companies due to the high transport costs.

Like the great rivers of Asia, the Rhine is also fed by glaciers. But they are on the decline. In 2025, for the fourth year in a row, they shrank simultaneously in all mountains on all continents, according to the WMO report. Data from the EU-funded climate monitoring service Copernicus shows that the global glacier mass has been shrinking every year since 1993 and the loss is accelerating. Episodes in which one or two glaciers recover a little are becoming increasingly rare. Over the past five years, global glacier loss has averaged more than double what it was 25 years ago.

In the future, this will make the water supply and water levels in the rivers even more unreliable. Glaciers, groundwater and seasonal snowpacks are something like the planet's savings account, says WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo: "They act as buffers, as reserves that ensure that a drought or a season that is too dry does not lead to a water crisis." We have been living on these savings for a number of years. Saulo explains: “Global terrestrial water reserves have been on a declining trend since 2014 to 2016 – a persistent signal that has existed for a decade. For the fourth year in a row, all of the world's major glacial regions have lost ice mass. Groundwater tells a similar story. Almost two thirds of the wells monitored worldwide had values ​​below the historical norm in 2025.

A special aspect of the loss of glaciers and the thawing of the permanently frozen ground, the permafrost in the high mountains, are catastrophic eruptions of temporary meltwater lakes or landslides, such as in May 2025 in Blatten, Switzerland, where an entire village was buried under a mudslide. Or exactly 15 months later at the end of August north of Kathmandu on the Nepal-Chinese border. On August 26th, a rocky slope covering an area of ​​two square kilometers broke off and, along with parts of the glacier that was supporting it, fell 1,400 meters deep into a river.

The enormous energy released by this rockfall melted some of the ice, causing an avalanche of mud and debris to shoot down the valley at an average speed of 188 kilometers per hour. Countless residential buildings, 20 schools, an important border station and more than a dozen smaller dams were demolished. Around 1,500 dead have been found so far, and 5,000 to over 6,000 people are still missing, according to various sources. 33,000 people have lost their homes.

The cause of the rock fall has not yet been completely clarified. It is known that the air temperature in the region was unusually high in July and August. Climate scientists have now statistically examined this heat wave and come to the conclusion that global warming has made it significantly more likely. Long-term warming and the change in the form of precipitation from snow to rain could have affected the stability of the mountain slope, the researchers write on the website “World Weather Attribution”.

Consequently, the government in Kathmandu has pointed out that the rich countries that are largely responsible for climate change must finally pay for the damage caused. Nepal has now applied for compensation through the UN Fund for climate-related damage and losses.

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