As 2025 draws to a close, two landmark publications shed light on the evolving state of global water resources, offering actionable national data and policy-oriented recommendations for stakeholders. These reports, released by the Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO) and the World Bank, underscore urgent challenges and opportunities in managing water resources.
FAO has launched its "Water Data Snapshot 2025", a comprehensive anaysis updated to reflect 2022 data through Aquastat platform. This report synthesises ten critical parameters to assess global, regional, and national trends in water resources. Key areas examined include the status of water availability, agricultural water use, the extent of irrigated land, water use efficiency, and indicators of water stress. FAO has also updated the Aquastat platform (https://data.apps.fao.org/aquastat/?lang=en) to streamline access to datasets.
Concurrently, the World Bank has released "Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future", a report that maps the geographic patterns of droughts across contintents. The study highlights regions experiencing water scarcity through the elaboration of GRACE satellite product, emphasising the cascading impacts on ecosystems, food security, and economic stability. To address these challenges, the report outlines three pivotal recommendations for global and national policy-makers:
- Managing demand;
- Augmenting water supply;
- Improving water allocation.
The two reports are available at the following links:
- Hernandez Lagana, M. & Mejias Moreno, P. 2025. AQUASTAT water data snapshot 2025. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd7054en
- Zhang, Fan, Christian Borja-Vega, Hrishikesh Arvind Chandanpurkar, James Famiglietti, Rick Hogeboom, Regassa Namara, Zarif Rasul, Pavel Luengas-Sierra, and Deyu Rao. 2025. Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future. Global Water Monitoring. Washington, DC: World Bank. doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-2269-8. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-2269-8
Image credits: Aerial view farms river vally Ethiopia (c) Wollwerth Imagery - AdobeStock_233573194.