Water, water everywhere...

I lifted a few notes from an investment email.  This is a very interesting macro consideration.

Last month, some 14,000 of the world's top business, academic, and government experts from 85 countries gathered in Singapore to learn the newest water-technology developments at the Singapore International Water Week 2010 conference.

The global economy may be filled with uncertainly, but the world's thirst for water is growing like mad. FACT: A total of $2.8 BILLION worth of water infrastructure deals were concluded at the Singapore conference.

All those billions are being spent for one reason: Clean drinking water is in short supply. It is estimated that the lack of pure water is the single greatest killer in the world: Four children die each minute from illness caused by a lack of drinking water.

The problem is not that the world is running out of water. There is exactly the same amount of water today as there was a million years ago, but a soaring global population and groundwater pollution is creating an acute shortage.

Only 2.5% of the world's water is fit for human consumption and two-thirds of that is locked away in icecaps and glaciers. This percentage has been fixed since the last ice age.

Water is not like gold or oil where a new discovery will suddenly increase the supply and there is no substitute for water...

 Here is an opportunity for clever engineers.


Note again:  $2.8 billion in deals at the conference. Seems to me if we warm the globe and melt the glaciers, then we can save the children.