Water infrastructure investment an opportunity for private sector
Minister has called on companies to finance, develop and operate sewage-treatment plants
After bagging a fortune by predicting the 2008 housing bubble collapse, US hedge fund manager Michael Burry focused his investment activity on one commodity: water. As the global population grows, demand for fresh water is set to soar. But how exactly does one profit from water? For Burry (depicted by Christian Bale in the Oscar-winning film The Big Short), the strategy that made the most sense was investing in food — growing crops in water-rich areas and selling them in dryer regions. He reportedly started buying almond farms, which are known to be water-hungry. While the idea of investing in almonds as a proxy for water might appeal to speculators looking to profit from the next big thing, there is another, albeit less exotic, way the private sector has been participating in water for many years: the financing and managing of municipal water and sewage-treatment infrastructure. And although these types of ventures don’t offer outlandish profits, they do have the potential to provi...
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