Climate change causing havoc with global water cycle: UNBy Agn�s PEDREROGeneva (AFP) Sept 18, 2025Climate change is spurring increasingly erratic and extreme swings between deluge and drought globally, with cascading repercussions for societies, the United Nations warned on Thursday. The UN's World Meteorological Organization said in a report that the world's water cycle was becoming ever more unpredictable, with shrinking glaciers, droughts, unbalanced river basins and severe floods wreaking havoc. "The world's water resources are under pressure from growing demand, and at the same time, we are seeing more water-related hazards," WMO chief Celeste Saulo told reporters in Geneva. The agency's annual State of Global Water Resources report "shows quite clearly that the water cycle has become increasingly erratic and extreme," she said, pointing to the "cascading impacts on infrastructure, agriculture, energy, health, and economic activities". She also called for optimising water use in agriculture, which accounts for between 75 and 90 percent of all water abstracted.