One of the few shares I hold is in the Singapore listed company, Hyflux which provides water purification mainly in China.

A recent article at CNN News reinforces the power in this idea.  

The article points out that scientists say that 40 percent of humanity, living in South Asia and China, could run out of drinking water within 50 years because Himalayan glaciers, the region's main water source, are melting.

The article shows pictures of how the glaciers has been shrinking since the 1800s and point out that these glaciers supply 303.6 million cubic feet every year to Asian rivers, including the Yangtze and Yellow rivers in China, the Ganges in India, the Indus in Pakistan, the Brahmaputra in Bangladesh and Burma's Irrawaddy.

A quote in the article says that if the current scenario continues, there will be very little water left in the Ganges and its tributaries.

The article says that a World Wide Fund report published in March said a quarter of the world's glaciers could disappear by 2050 and half by 2100.

The situation is critical because, unlike in other parts of the world, the glaciers are the main source for drinking water.

About 67 percent of the nearly 12,124 square miles of Himalayan glaciers are shrinking. The Gangotri glacier, the source of the Ganges River is contracting 75 feet a year. The Khumbu Glacier in Nepal has shrunk more than 3 miles since the 1950s.

You can read the entire article at http://ir.asiaone.com.sg/hyflux/news/20050912_001.html

More on water is at http://www.waterbank.com/

This is one more confirmation of the idea invest in water! 

One place to do this is via the Singapore Stock Exchange. A September 15, 2005 article about water companies in Singapore says:

"DEEP in the recesses of a nondescript building on Singapore's Havelock Road, engineers William Yong and Alastair McNeil are hard at work designing two state-of-the-art water treatment plants.

"Nothing remarkable about that - except that the plants will be built not here, or even in Asia, but in the American states of Texas and Illinois.

"For years, while Singapore built its vast network of water pipelines and treatment plants, it imported expertise. Now expertise developed here is being applied to overseas projects.

"Buoyed by easy access to capital, a rapidly growing regional market and a Government eager to try out new technologies, Singapore is fast becoming a centre for excellence in the water industry.

"Although no one tracks the number of water companies setting up shop here, membership of the Singapore Water Association has gone from 36 to 81 since its inception last December.

"The association provides a platform for industry players to network and share ideas and technologies.

"The timing of this boom is perfect, coinciding as it does with looming threats of a global water crisis, rampant desertification and water pollution.

"The United Nations says 1.1 billion people - or about one in every six people worldwide - already have insufficient drinking water. And the number is likely to deteriorate to one in four by 2050."

Gary