Solid Liquid Stocks! (Part 2)

Solid Liquid Stocks! (Part 1)
Global Stock Perspectives of Water
Since global water supplies are in flux, it helps investors to take stock of the business implications of this scarce but essential resource. Almost a fifth of all people on earth do not have access to adequate fresh water supplies. First world communities are not out of the water scarcity net, as groundwater drawing and river resources are used without adequate controls. Desalination, harvesting, and recycling are essential ways to prevent public systems from collapsing. The matter is acute when we consider frequent inter-continental travel by large numbers of people in today’s world.

Threats of exposure to new water-borne diseases limit trade and tourism growth. Wasteful irrigation is a major portion of all water consumption, and the demand for food, fibers, and for biological fuels, means that any efficiency improvements in watering crops and trees will be lost to increased acreages under farming on various counts. Similarly, aggression by environmental activists will mean that wastages of river resources will continue: new dams, even if decided upon now, will take decades to realize planned potentials.

The water treatment sector is profitable, large, and socially relevant. Cash flows are at least as assured as for any other natural resource, including gold and precious gems. However, success calls for the management of diverse technologies, appropriate scale, and a variety of professional capabilities. This is why the sector will be dominated by a few large players, rather than by a proliferation as the world has witnessed with software.

Do you own stocks of any business in water treatment? Are you concerned with the depletion of this resource, or would you like to know more about how some cities have found comprehensive solutions to this burning problem? Please join our forum for a vibrant exchange on this issue that concerns all of us.