The Business of Water: An ETF For Tomorrow

As straightforward as the critical importance of water may seem to be, investing in the category is not quite as easy. One way to overcome the complexity is to look at investing in a marketbasket of water stocks as represented by an exchange traded fund.

Industry Consolidation: Watershed or Water Bubble?

Consolidation in the water industry has been underway for some time now. It began in a big way with the financial empire built by U.S. Filter, transformed under the utility privatization era and has continued with many high profile strategic acquisitions. All and all, water industry consolidation in the form of takeovers, has been very profitable for investors. In the long term, whether consolidation is postive for the water industry depends on the extent to which the transactions enhance value, not just on driving up stock prices.

Decentralized or Distributed Treatment?

The necessity of decentralized wastewater treatment is acknowledged as an alternative to large centralized facilities. Decentralized wastewater treatment is vastly more expansive than traditional septic systems; it includes not only conventional individual onsite wastewater systems but also cluster or common systems and packaged wastewater treatment facilities. The point, however, was that to characterize decentralized wastewater treatment as a distributed concept similar to that used in electricity generation is counter productive. This is because the economic and regulatory forces that are driving the move to distributed generation are simply not present in the structure of wastewater treatment. The question now is whether drinking water treatment can fulfill the promise of distributed resource management.

The Promise of Desalination

Desalination is often heralded as a panacea for water starved coastal regions of the world. Given these lofty expectations it is instructive to take a close look at the technology and identify the major global players.

Where Are the Values in Water stocks?

The DJIA has recently hit record setting highs and the water industry is no different. But given the higher valuations uncharacteristic in the water industry are there still values to be had.

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