Scarce fresh water an investment boon

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/business/story.html?id=60e8a4c1-b733-4f96-a85c-d723c1f4e221&rfp=dta

This article basically talked about how water is becoming scarcer due to human activities. From a finical stand point, this may be a good thing because as water become scarcer, the demand for it would increase as a result it. In fact, investment in water is far more popular than it is in the oil industries. The earlier investors get involved with the water industries, the better it is because of the demand for water in the next few decades would be booming. The United Nations predicts that when we reach the year 2050, about 48 countries would be in shortage of water, affecting a total of 2 billion people. This is a result of developed countries consuming massive amount of water. The articles suggest that $180 billion should be invested into water infrastructure a year in nations such as China and India. That would be doubling the current investment. The problem isn’t really on the supply of water but rather the lack of clean usable water. More than 98 percent of the world’s water supply is salt water and majority of left over 2 percent is locked up in ice caps.

Relations to Chapter 1 -Scarcity

There is no doubt that the scarcity of water is a growing concern world wide because there is such heavy reliance on it. I think in Canada we take for granted the water we have available to us. The supply of water is decreasing around the word and Canada is no exception. Since the government is responsible for the supply of water in Canada, I think they need to do more in order to have a stronger control on their water supply. Enforce strict policies and if they are to be broken, lay out heavy fines. Shortage of supplies of water may be a good thing for the investors investing in that market. However the same can’t be said about other markets. For example, if the price of water was to increase, it would greatly affect agriculture. Price to agricultural products would increase and the people in developing nations would suffer because they wouldn’t have access to it for two reasons. Firstly they simply wouldn’t be able to afford it and secondly, developing countries tend to be run by corrupted Governments that would sell their agricultural goods to foreign countries rather than providing it to their own people. Supply of water is gradually decreasing and there is little that anyone can do about it, at least for now in terms of finding a replacement. The supply of water simply can’t match the demand for water.