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India’s groundwater levels are declining persistently, according to the State of Global Water Resources 2025 report published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Dipping groundwater levels are widely acknowledged in India, particularly in the north and north-west parts of the country. But the latest global assessment warns that the decline is now persistent over several years, indicating a rupture in the water balance: more groundwater is being extracted than recharged.
“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,” the WMO report said.
Globally, 34 per cent of groundwater observation stations reported below-normal to much-below-normal levels in 2025, compared with 25 per cent in 2024. Around 31 per cent of observation stations reported above-normal to much-above-normal groundwater levels in 2025.
“The percentages are derived from regions with available groundwater monitoring data, and indicate a shift towards more widespread below-normal groundwater conditions compared to 2024,” the report said. Groundwater levels were measured against the 20-year reference period from 2001 to 2020.
According to the WMO analysis, groundwater trends indicate cumulative depletion and a multi-year drying pattern.
The State of Global Water Resources report has now been published for five years, giving comparable data on key parameters across the water cycle and allowing longer-term trends to emerge.
“Rivers across the globe in 2025 had one of the driest years in more than three decades,” says the WMO in a press statement based on the latest annual assessment. “It shows a continuation of the long-term decline in Earth’s freshwater storage and in glacier retreat — trends with serious implications for people and economies in the future,” warned WMO.
Northern India also reported below-normal terrestrial water storage in 2025, as in many other major regions.
“We are depleting that savings account,” WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said, referring to global terrestrial water storage.
“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. Groundwater tells a similar story: 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,” Saulo said.
