Climate warning as world’s rivers dry up at fastest rate for 30 years

A tugboat navigates around sandbars amid low water levels on the Mississippi River. Water levels on the river hit a record low in 2023. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

Rivers dried up at the highest rate in three decades in 2023, putting global water supply at risk, data has shown.

Over the past five years, there have been lower-than-average river levels across the globe and reservoirs have also been low, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) State of Global Water Resources report.