Investors warm to water as shortages mount
Summary: In business-speak, the millions of people living in slums across the world who are facing epochal water shortages as climate change bites are an “unadressed need [and] an enormous opportunity for investment.” Investors are now weighing up the population to water resources ratios of nations. In China, for example, which “has a fifth of the world’s population but just 7 percent of the water…Most of the length of the country’s five main rivers is unsafe for direct human contact, and the country will have to build 1,000 wastewater treatment plants between 2006 and 2010 to meet national pollution targets, Citigroup analysts say.”
For Citigroup, this looks like a dream come true. Captive markets, rising commodity prices, environmentally induced scarcity of something that everyone needs – the challenge now is gaining control of the infrastructure and extracting a rent. 
That means defeating plans for public ownership and provision – which will be one of the key battle aims for the environmental justice movement in coming years.
As liquidity is drained from credit and money markets and pours into oil and gold, another asset class that could offer long-term returns to the discerning investor is water.
Water shortages are on the rise — stemming from soaring demand, growing populations, rising living standards and changing diets. A lack of supply is compounded by pollution and climate change.
Investors are mobilising funds to buy the assets that control water and improve supplies, especially in developing countries such as China where urban populations are booming, further tightening supply.
