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The future energy in Germany - massively supported by the government
Colbert and Kamen Solve the World's Water Problems
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/colbert-and-kam.html
Water's Slippery Seduction
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120675033481973411.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Experts Look to Solve World’s Growing Water Shortage
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1316387/experts_look_to_solve_worlds_growing_water_shortage/
Competition needed in water market: report
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/28/2201483.htm?section=australia
WATER IS THE SOURCE FOR ALL KNOWN LIFE /NOW AND IN THE FUTURE INVEST IN OUR CHILDRENS FUTURES& SAVE OUR PLANET AT THE SAME TIME WIN /WIN SITUATION NO ONE LOSES IN MY HUMBLE OPINION///REALBIZ/PEACE AND PROSPERITY
Thank you, will do.
Here You go tbv...
If you find out anything that looks interesting please post about it...thanks...
Bio-treat technology- BOTRF
Asia Environment holdings- AAEHF
Hyflux- HYFXF
Sinomem- SMMKF
Asia water technology- AWAEF
China water affairs group- CWAFF
Again, I would love to hear any thoughts you had on these companies and I would recommend his book if you believe China will continue to boom as I do...
Toad
I would be interested in seeing those pinkies...
Jim Roger's China water picks....
Hey Guys,
In Roger's new book "A Bull in China" he discusses some China based companies that may do well due to China's big water problem.... I can give out the Pink Sheet symbols to those interested. May only concern is the lack of transparency for these companies... My gut says Rogers would not have mentioned them without a bit of DD first though....
Toad
Looks interesting.. I only see these companies doing well... Desalinization is going to be huge...
Thanks,
Toad
desalination courtesy TobagoJack on SI
http://www.bekaert.com/corporate/products/Composites.htm
Seprotech Finalizes Agreement to Purchase P.J. Hannah Equipment Sales Corp.
16:24 EST Friday, December 07, 2007
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 7, 2007) - Seprotech Systems Inc. (TSX VENTURE:SET) is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of P.J. Hannah Equipment Sales Corporation ("P.J. Hannah Corp.") based in British Columbia. The asset purchase of P.J. Hannah Corp. was finalized with no material changes of the terms announced on the 11th of October 2007.
P.J. Hannah Corp was founded in 1973 and manufactures a range of water and wastewater treatment equipment for use in municipalities and by the resource sector. Revenues have ranged from approximately $2.0 million to $3.3 million per year over the past five years (unaudited). P.J. Hannah Corp. has experienced substantial growth in 2007 with revenues expected to be approximately $5 million.
"P.J. Hannah Corp. has a solid track record and an excellent reputation within the environmental industry," said Martin J. Hauschild, President & CEO of Seprotech. "The acquisition provides skilled staff and essential distribution & service coverage in Western Canada to clients in the mining, oil & gas and land development sectors - both key elements in achieving rapid growth for Seprotech."
"Our staff is looking forward to coming together with the Seprotech team," said Peter Hannah, President of P.J. Hannah Corp. "Uniting our two companies creates a Canadian corporation that can compete and expand internationally by offering the most advanced environmental solutions related to water in the marketplace."
"This deal is highly accretive on a number of levels," said Justin Connidis, Seprotech Chairman. "Seprotech acquires a number of complementary proprietary technologies with this transaction and we plan to leverage tremendous future growth from the addition of P.J. Hannah Corp. skilled sales staff and client base."
Seprotech is a provider of pre-engineered water and wastewater treatment plants to the land development, resource sector and military market place, including CrystalBlue(TM) membrane-based water recycling systems and the ROTORDISK(R) wastewater treatment systems.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Seprotech Systems Inc.
Mr. Robert J. Searle, CFO
Investor Relations
613-523-1641
613-731-0851 (FAX)
I don't follow the sector so I can't give you any tips.
PICO is the best water stock I have found... but I just started looking... What are some of your favorites? I love the sector... I think it is still in a very early BULL market.
Todd
Asian nations face "unprecedented" water crisis-ADB
SINGAPORE, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Developing countries in Asia could face an "unprecedented" water crisis within a decade due to mismanagement of water resources, the Asian Development Bank said in a report on Thursday.
The effects of climate change, rapid industrialisation and population growth on water resources could lead to health and social issues that could cost billions of dollars annually, it said.
"If the present unsatisfactory trends continue, in one or two decades, Asian developing countries are likely to face and cope with a crisis on water quality management that is unprecedented in human history," Ajit Biswas wrote in the report.
The report, entitled "Asian Water Development Outlook", was submitted to the Asia-Pacific Water Forum in Singapore, which will discuss the issue at a summit in Japan next week.
The report also comes before a U.N. meeting in Indonesia next week to discuss a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
"Water quality management has mostly been a neglected issue in Asian developing member countries. The annual economic cost is likely to be billions of dollars," Biswas wrote.
The report said massive urbanisation will present new types of water-related challenges.
In contrast to cities in developed countries such as Tokyo, developing countries have fallen behind in the collection, treatment, and safe disposal of wastewater, it said.
Climate change is likely to increase the frequency of extreme events like droughts and floods and introduce high levels of risks and uncertainties that the water industry may not be able to handle with confidence, Biswas said.
The report, written by a team of water specialists, covers 12 Asian countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Samoa, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
The ADB report recommends major changes in water governance practices in most Asian developing countries, and to look to successful models such as in Singapore and Cambodia which had improved monitoring of water consumption.
The report also called for countries to improve the accessibility of data on water quality.
(Reporting by Daryl Loo, editing by Neil Chatterjee and Sanjeev Miglani)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUKSIN306453._CH_.242020071129
Seprotech signs CrystalBlue deal with Toray
2007-10-17 17:46 ET - News Release
Mr. Martin Hauschild reports
SEPROTECH SYSTEMS INC. AND TORAY OF JAPAN COMPLETE AGREEMENT
Seprotech Systems Inc. has completed an agreement with Toray, a publicly traded Japanese multinational with over $12-billion (U.S.) in revenue last fiscal year and 36,000 employees worldwide. Toray manufactures a wide array of composite materials, textiles, plastics, chemicals, medical products and separation technologies.
The agreement follows extensive negotiations and several visits by Seprotech staff to the Toray Membrane USA Inc. (TMUS) offices in San Diego and visits by TMUS staff and executives from Toray's headquarters in Japan to Ottawa, in order to assess the market potential of Seprotech's proprietary technologies. The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) portion of the agreement centres on the incorporation of Toray's flat-sheet membranes into Seprotech's new proprietary water reuse technology, CrystalBlue, being released to the market. A complete technical announcement regarding Seprotech's newly developed CrystalBlue water reuse technology will follow.
"Water reuse is the most cost-effective solution to growing global water scarcity and shortages," said Martin Hauschild, president and chief executive officer of Seprotech. "Seprotech's CrystalBlue system has significant cost advantages over competitive technologies available on the market including membrane bioreactors (MBRs) and sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) through lower operating and capital costs.
"The power savings of at least 60 per cent over existing water reuse technologies provides our customers with the most environmentally green solution to their water conservation challenges. The first two water reuse systems with Toray membranes have already been sold and management believes that CrystalBlue and the relationship with Toray provides the potential to drive the company forward into the next stage of growth," concluded Mr. Hauschild.
"We are very excited about the agreement with Seprotech and our prospects in the water reuse market," said TMUS chief executive officer, Randy Truby. "The inclusion of Toray's industry leading PVDF membrane module into Seprotech's CrystalBlue water reuse technology is a very strong technical combination that provides end-users with a unique and cost-effective solution."
The flat-sheet membrane modules manufactured by Toray consist of membrane elements housed in a stainless steel frame. The membrane elements are made of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer and are attached to an ABS frame. The membranes are manufactured with a pore size of 0.08 micron, which is in the ultrafiltration range. This tight membrane provides an absolute barrier that ensures that solids, bacteria, viruses and parasites are rejected from the clean water.
Hi Ed,
Please make me assistant moderator and I'll make you some neat charts for your iBox. TIA
The Claymore S&P Global Water ETF (CWW on TSX)
The Claymore S&P Global Water ETF (The "Fund") seeks investment results that correspond generally to the performance, before the Fund’s fees and expenses, of an equity index called the S&P Global Water Index (the “Water Index” or “Index”).
The Water Index tracks a portfolio of 50 global equity securities from developed markets of companies that are involved in water-related businesses. The index comprises a group of companies distributed equally among two distinct clusters of water-related businesses: (i) Water Utilities & Infrastructure and (ii) Water Equipment & Materials. Constituent holdings range in size from small-, mid- and large-cap stocks.
For more info:
http://www.claymoreinvestments.ca/ETFs/Public/fund/Overview.aspx?ID=39f34860-548f-42f2-b7ce-f1a26dd7...
Testing the waters for clean tech
http://news.com.com/Testing+the+waters+for+clean+tech/2100-11395_3-6197924.html
By Martin LaMonica
Story last modified Mon Jul 23 08:36:26 PDT 2007
Clean water is always in demand, but what about clean water tech start-ups?
Sensicore, which builds sensors and software for monitoring municipal water quality, is hoping that investors have a big thirst for clean tech ventures. The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company intends to file to go public on the Toronto Stock Exchange later this year, according to CEO Malcolm Kahn.
Founded in 2000, Sensicore is among a wave of clean tech start-ups creating technology to better manage natural resources. But even though water conservation and quality is an increasingly pressing problem, there are few high-tech water management companies.
Water utilities, which are heavily regulated, need to spend heavily to upgrade their basic infrastructure of pipes and treatment plants, rather than on cutting-edge technologies. Meanwhile, people expect pristine water from their taps but generally aren't willing to pay more for better water quality, said Rob Day, a principal at the clean-tech investment arm of @Ventures.
"It's a huge challenge to get people willing to pay for good water," Day said. "And we're not seeing as many entrepreneurs in the water space even though it's one of the biggest screaming needs."
Industrial giants like Siemens and General Electric have water purification businesses, and some start-ups such as Nano H2O that do specialized filtration technologies have attracted venture investment.
Sensicore, which started selling products earlier this year and is not yet profitable, is trying to distinguish itself by marrying information technology with water management, Kahn said.
Its system compiles water quality information and maps it onto a Web-based application that shows workers at a treatment plant what's happening in their distribution networks.
The basis of its product is "lab-on-a-chip" sensor technology, based on research from the University of Michigan. Rather than have a separate sensor to measure different chemicals, a single silicon chip-based sensor can gather several inputs, such as chlorine or ammonia levels.
The sensors are cheap enough so that municipalities can use many, which gives them redundancy in the case that a sensor breaks down. That means fewer trips out to water distribution pipelines for maintenance people and lower costs, Kahn said.
The company is already working on the next generation of its monitoring system, which is scheduled to be available next year. The sensors will be able to gather information over a range of different networks without having to send a field engineer to the sensors, Kahn said.
"The online incarnation will be able to continuously feed back to our networks," he said. "Ultimately, the strategy we have is the building of a database, a kind of fingerprint of the kinds of problems that happen in a water distribution system using common sensing technology."
Pipes over chips
As part of its Big Green Innovations initiative, IBM is looking at water management. IBM is trying to partner with Sensicore as it seeks out IT-related systems to modernize the decidedly low-tech world of water quality monitoring, according to Andrew Clark, director of strategy at IBM's Venture Capital Group.
IBM sees potential in gathering large amounts of water quality information and combining it with weather models. By crunching water data, it can build highly customized applications for municipalities or farmers to better manage water, Clark said.
"In most municipal areas in the U.S., we don't have a quality problem and we haven't had any terrorist issues," he said. "But in other countries, like China or India, they have terrible problems with quality."
Right now, Sensicore is selling to U.S. municipalities where its system is being used in about 50 facilities, Kahn said.
Maintenance crews use a handheld device to check on water quality, which pulls data from its sensors in the water. To get information from the distribution network back to a water treatment plant headquarters, a Bluetooth wireless connection passes information to a water engineer's cell phone, which is then sent to Sensicore's data centers.
Its software can be accessed via a Web browser and presents information using Microsoft's MapPoint Web service to give engineers a clearer idea of quality along the network.
Although municipalities in the U.S. are required to measure and meet quality thresholds, even Kahn admits selling to municipalities is not easy.
"If you look at the market dynamics, (municipalities) are spending upwards of $200 billion on infrastructure improvements, replacing pipes and putting in new lines," Kahn said. But "water quality is viewed today as more of a necessary evil."
As a result, Sensicore markets its system as a way to reduce spending on chemicals and service calls and to cut down on customer complaints.
Despite the tough environment, water-related venture capital deals are showing signs of going up. In the first half of the year, $37 million went into water treatment-related deals following $68 million in 2006, according to the Cleantech Group, which compiles data on venture investment.
That investment is dwarfed by energy-related deals, which were $2.6 billion in 2006. But growing concerns over water, stemming from climate change and concerns over national security, could drive more spending, said Cleantech Group Chief Operating Officer Craig Cuddeback.
Some of that spending may come from different sources than venture capitalists, though, such as bankers involved in multimillion-dollar project finance deals.
"If you talk to any venture capitalist, they will all say they are looking for a water deal," said @Venture's Day. But "utilities face challenges on a basic level of infrastructure improvement before they get into the type of technology solutions that a VC would like to back."
Copyright ©1995-2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
Septrotech
From website: http://www.seprotech.com/
Seprotech was founded in 1985 with a vision to solve many of the world's most difficult environmental problems related to water. We are 100% focused on water and wastewater treatment solutions and specialize in designing plant equipment that is compact, energy efficient, reliable and simple to operate. With thousands of systems built for customers worldwide, Seprotech has established a reputation for design, engineering and manufacturing excellence.
Recent increase in activity:
Desperate for Water
The Western U.S. has been gripped by drought for nearly a decade, leaving states fighting over water rights. Are we headed for another Dust Bowl?
6/22/2007
How bad is the drought?
It started in 1999, and has spread to cover a third of the nation. Parts of the 11 Western states that have been hardest hit are experiencing the driest conditions on record, receiving only 20 percent of their normal rainfall. For California and Nevada, the last 12 months were the driest recorded since 1924. The volume of the Colorado River—a vital source of water for 30 million people in California, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as Mexico—has fallen by half. The snowpack in the mountains that melts and then replenishes rivers and lakes was only about 20 percent of the normal level this spring, and reservoirs are starting to dry up. “We’ve gone from moderate to severe drought,” said climatologist Bill Patzert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “and we’ve jumped to extreme.”
Is there relief in sight?
No. Climatologists warn that the drought is likely to only get worse. Over the centuries, the West has gone through periodic wet and dry cycles. The 20th century was actually wetter than usual, and the region appears to be entering a prolonged dry spell—and that’s without taking global warming into account. A recent study in the journal Science warned that because of global warming, summer temperatures in the sun-baked Southwest could rise by as much as 9 degrees by 2070, ushering in catastrophic drought conditions not seen since the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s. “We think of water as an unlimited resource,” said Donald Wilhite of the National Drought Mitigation Center. “But what happens when you turn on the tap and it’s not there?”
Will taps really go dry?
There’s still enough water, for now. But demand is rising sharply. Retiring baby boomers and young workers continue to flock to the region for its warm, arid climate and vibrant economy; indeed, the seven states that depend on the Colorado River for their water include five of the 12 fastest-growing states in the nation. Arizona in recent years has been growing at a rate three times the national average, with no letup in sight. Three of the nation’s 10 fastest-growing metropolitan areas sit in California’s Central Valley. Las Vegas has set a national record for explosive growth, expanding 1,200 percent since 1960. With these areas booming as water supplies dwindle, the water crises that have periodically hit the region for decades only stand to get worse. “We have plenty of water,” said Jack Flobeck, a Colorado Springs water consultant. “The people are in the wrong places.”
How has the drought affected the region?
Grazing land is drying up, forcing California ranchers to sell cattle or move them out of state. Wildfire season is hitting early, prompting Arizona to issue a desperate plea for out-of-state firefighters. Santa Cruz, N.M., recently imposed restrictions against watering lawns between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., and Los Angeles officials have asked residents of the sprawling city to use 20 fewer gallons a day, by taking shorter showers and not watering their lawns. In upscale, do-good communities such as Santa Monica and Hollywood, there’s even talk of “water guilt.” So far, communities have avoided ordering residents to stop watering lawns altogether and flushing toilets during hours of peak demand. But that may not last. Many states and cities are now considering more drastic ways of conserving water. Las Vegas, for example, has budgeted $100 million to pay people $2 for every square foot of lawn they dig up and replace with drought-resistant ground cover.
Can conservation measures save the day?
Not if weather and population trends continue. “Maybe we can meet our needs now, but we don’t have enough water to double or triple our population,” said Launce Rake of the anti-growth Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. “Instead of just hurting during a drought like we are now, we’ll be facing a catastrophic water shock.”
What about new sources of water?
Some experts say the government needs to start investing heavily in desalinization technologies that can turn seawater into fresh water. Another option is diverting water that would have been used to irrigate farms and sending it to cities. In Southern California a few years ago, farmers struck a deal with the Metropolitan Water District to let fields lie fallow so they could send more water to cities, in exchange for cash to cover lost crops. There is currently $2.5 billion in water projects underway in four states—including a 280-mile pipeline to Las Vegas—marking the West’s most intense effort to expand supplies in a generation.
Will this be enough?
No one can say. Scientists warn that extended dry spells more severe than the current one have hit the region over the centuries. Already, the seven states that share the Colorado River are fighting over its reduced flow. Montana filed a lawsuit in February accusing Wyoming of siphoning off more than its share of the Tongue and Powder rivers. Utah has vowed to fight the Nevada pipeline, which it says will grab water its farmers need. If the drought lasts, such fights will only get fiercer. “This is a situation that’s going to cause water wars,” said Kevin Trenberth, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “If there’s not enough water to meet everyone’s allocation, how do you divide it up?”
Water is the commodity of the next 100 years
PIO - PowerShares Global Water Portfolio
PowerShares Capital Management LLC
is passionate about our goal of
delivering the highest quality
investment management available
by seeking to replicate intelligent
indexes in one of the more benefit-
rich investment vehicles ever created,
the exchange-traded fund.
PowerShares provides institutional-
caliber asset management that seeks
to replicate enhanced indexes. These
indexes derive their investment
decisions from methodologies that
incorporate technically advanced and
robust institutional investment research.
The PowerShares Global Water
Portfolio is based on the Palisades
Global Water IndexTM. The Index
seeks to identify a group of global
companies that focus on the provision
of potable water, the treatment of
water and the technology and services
that are directly related to global water
consumption. The modified equalweighted
portfolio is rebalanced and
reconstituted quarterly.
Shares are ETF investments and have
risks similar to stocks, including the
possible loss of money. An investment
in non-U.S. securities within a
single industry involves special risk
beyond a diversified investment in
domestic equities. Ordinary brokerage
commissions apply.
Outlook to sell, market Lars Enviro's waste water stuff
2007-05-31 07:24 MT - News Release
Mr. John Bottomley reports
OUTLOOK SIGNS MOU WITH LARS ENVIRO PVT. LTD. http://www.larsenviro.com/
Outlook Resources Inc. has signed a second memorandum of understanding (MOU) in as many days between Lars Enviro Pvt. Ltd., of Nagpur, India, granting Outlook the exclusive Canadian sales and marketing rights to Lars Enviro's process design capabilities in regard to waste water treatment and biogas production technologies.
Lars Enviro is a professionally managed environmental engineering company that was founded in June of 1997 to provide cost-effective "concept to commissioning" solutions for its clients through the development and implementation of state-of-the-art, proven technological solutions that meet or exceed the most stringent environmental requirements for waste water treatment.
Lars Enviro's industrial experience includes specialized waste water treatment systems and anaerobic digestion systems (resulting in biogas production and recovery) for alcohol distilleries, breweries, dairies, and fuel-ethanol/alco-chemical production plants making their systems a vital part of the respective industry application they are designed for.
Lars Enviro's emphasis on achieving results has enabled it to repeatedly surpass its client's expectations resulting in repeat business and numerous referrals.
The Lars environmental engineering team, now over 40 people strong and with over 200 years of collective experience, has focused on becoming a leader in the recovery of valuable resources with a particular focus on process waste water recycling systems using anaerobic digestion technology for biogas production and specialized sludge management systems for offline minerals removal and recovery.
Rajneesh Tyagi and his team will be handling the sales and marketing of Lars Enviro's water treatment engineering capabilities on behalf of Outlook into the rapidly growing waste water treatment industry in Canada and on a project by project basis in the United States.
I think that this is the bad part of any water purification system.
It’s very pure. We remove viruses, bacteria, moulds, funguses, those sorts of things, as well as the organics in the solutions. But it will not remove things like salt and irons that are inherent in the water, so we do have to further treat that water to get it to the same sort of standards that are currently available.
If they found a way to leave the water natural like spring or well water.
There was a public spring out right on the side of Hiway 7. People were getting their drinking water there for over 15 years.
Last year Health Canada shut it down.
Taking toxins out of water leaving it clean enough to drink.
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/innovations/stories/s1683564.htm
Well someone must have done a rain dance here.
Ya and flurries all day, going to start melting this weekend though.
First day of spring
4:45 PM ET
After Hours with Jim O'Connell and Kim Parlee
Hot Water Stocks
Otto Spork, president and CEO, Sextant Capital
http://www.robtv.com/shows/past_archive.tv?day=tue
Dire Warnings from China's First Climate Change Report
Published on Wednesday, December 27, 2006 by the Agence France Presse
Temperatures in China will rise significantly in coming decades and water shortages will worsen, state media has reported, citing the government's first national assessment of global climate change.
"Greenhouse gases released due to human activity are leading to ever more serious problems in terms of climate change," the Ministry of Science and Technology said in a statement.
"Global climate change has an impact on the nation's ability to develop further," said the ministry, one of 12 government departments that prepared the report.
In just over a decade, global warming will start to be felt in the world's most populous country, and it will get warmer yet over the next two or three generations.
Compared with 2000, the average temperatures will increase by between 1.3 and 2.1 degrees Celsius by 2020, the China News Service reported, citing the assessment.
By the middle of the century, the annual average temperature in China will rise by as much as 3.3 degrees Celsius (more than five degrees fahrenheit), and by 2100 it could soar by as much as six degrees Celsius, according to the news service.
"We're in a period of rapid economic growth, and energy consumption will increase as a result," Liu Hongbin, a Beijing-based expert at the National Climate Center, told AFP.
"As a result, China will continue to emit a rather large amount of greenhouse gases."
The report predicted that precipitation will also increase drastically in the coming decades, rising up to 17 percent by the turn of the next century, according to the news service.
However, this will bring little or no relief to China's frequently drought-stricken farmers, the report noted.
Although parched north China is expected to have more rain, water shortages will increase because of faster evaporation caused by higher temperatures.
Drought, heat waves and other extreme weather will also hit China more often, according to the report.
Few aspects of human endeavor in China will be immune to the devastating effects of global warming, the report suggests.
Even a railway that opened this year linking remote Tibet to provinces further east will be affected.
This is because part of the rail is built on top of subsoil that maintains sub-zero temperatures throughout the year but may start to thaw due to hotter weather "threatening the safety of railway operations", the news service said.
"The report will serve as the country's scientific and technical reference in policy making and international cooperation," said Li Xueyong, vice minister of the science ministry.
The report notes that China has already started seeing the effects of global warming, the China News Service said.
Glaciers in the nation's northwest have decreased by 21 percent since the 1950s, the report says, according to the news agency.
It also says all China's major rivers have shrunk over the past five decades, although it provides no figures for the actual decrease.
In a separate report, the state-run Xinhua news agency said the water level in the middle reaches of the nation's longest river, the Yangtze, hit a record low this week.
The port city of Anqing, on the Yangtze River, encountered a low of 1.95 meters (6.4 feet) on Tuesday, a level posing a risk to shipping, Xinhua said.
Xinhua did not directly attribute the problems to global warming but quoted experts as saying the low water levels were due to a decrease in rainfall.
© Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1227-02.htm
Water is the new oil, says CIBC
ROMA LUCIW
Globe and Mail Update
The colossal cost of fixing crumbling water infrastructure in the developed
world has opened the door to government privatization.
Water delivery systems in the industrial world are in "dire need" of repair,
says a report released Monday by CIBC World Markets Inc. At least one-fifth
of America's municipal wastewater treatment facilities do not comply with
federal regulations and in some U.S. cities, more than half of the water
headed to consumers is lost along the way.
CIBC economist Benjamin Tal, author of the "Tapping into Water" report,
estimates it will take "hundreds of billions of dollars" to fix dated water
infrastructure in North America and Europe.
Federal governments are not rushing to fix the infrastructure and
municipalities lack the means to do so. "As a result, governments are now
much more open to the notion of privatizing their water infrastructure
which, in turn, is providing a substantial boost to the private water
industry," Mr. Tal said.
"What we are witnessing here is a trend that is profoundly modifying water
as an investment theme throughout the world."
Canada has one of the world's largest supplies of fresh water, but has its
own water woes. Some British Columbia residents remain under a boil-water
advisory that first came into effect Nov. 16 when heavy rainfall triggered
mudslides and caused runoff into the Vancouver region's reservoirs. There
are fears that the water is contaminated with E. coli, the bacteria that
killed seven people in Walkerton, Ont., six years ago. The bacteria entered
the town's water supply from farm runoff, and residents had to boil or buy
their water for seven months after that supply was tainted.
Meanwhile, the business of water is booming.
Mr. Tal sees parallels between today's water industry and the oil industry
in its golden era, before and after the Second World War. "The market is
paying attention," he said. "Capital investment, deregulation,
consolidation, and privatization of global water assets and services are
advancing at a pace not seen before."
In the last three years, U.S.-based water companies - as measured by the
Bloomberg U.S. water index - have surged 150 per cent, three times the rise
seen by companies on the S&P 500, while paying twice as much in dividends.
International water players are doing even better, Mr. Tal said, with their
stock values rising twice as fast as their American counterparts in the past
year alone.
Water is an attractive investment because it is much less volatile than
industries driven by economic cycles, Mr. Tal said. Companies that
specialize in "water solutions" can range from pumps, pipes and valves,
wastewater treatment, to quality testing. European companies account for
half of the global water players, while American companies make up 36 per
cent.
In Canada, there are few ways for investors to directly invest in H2O.
However, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board recently launched a bid
for a British water utility.
In order to attract private sector investment in water, municipalities are
allowing the price of water to rise to levels that resemble full recovery
costs. "Water prices in many industrialized countries are now rising much
faster than inflation, and this trend will only accelerate in the coming
years," Mr. Tal said.
World Bank estimates suggest that outsourcing and privatization in the water
sector are set to double in the coming five years to reach a near 40 per
cent share of the market.
"If crumbling water infrastructures in North America and Europe provide the
private water industry with great opportunities, the potential in the
developing world is even greater," Mr. Tal said.
The water investment theme is being supported by rising demand for clean
drinking water. Global water demand is doubling every twenty years and water
utilization rates have doubled in the past 45 years. The populations and
economies of Asian powerhouses China and India are expanding and the
countries are not only consuming more water, they are highly inefficient in
their use.
Still, the CIBC report stressed that the world is not running out of water.
The problem is that the global water supply is unevenly distributed with
nine countries possessing 60 per cent of the world's available freshwater
supply.
"As is the case with any other resources on earth, the main story lies in
the developing economies, where water shortage will only worsen in the
coming years due to rapid population growth, urbanization, climate change,
and the fact that globalization is highly water intensive," Mr. Tal said.
Enpar gets U.S. patent for waste-water treatment
2006-10-25 09:57 ET - News Release
Dr. Gene Shelp reports
ENPAR AWARDED UNITED STATES PATENT FOR ITS AMMONIA TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY
Enpar Technologies Inc. has received the latest in a series of anticipated patents for its AmmEL system. This United States patent is expected to be followed closely by a successful patent application in Canada.
Enpar's management believes that its AmmEL system is currently the best-known technology for the treatment of ammonia in municipal and industrial waste waters. Ammonia is a recognized toxin that is directly converted to environmentally friendly nitrogen gas by the AmmEL system. Management believes that the AmmEL system has worldwide applications in markets that represent billions of dollars annually.
The majority of competing biological technologies in Canada convert ammonia to nitrate, a human carcinogen, which is then dumped into freshwater systems, creating a potential health risk.
The current patent is for improvements made to the company's U.S. and Canadian patents that were awarded on July 4, 2000, and December, 2005, respectively.
Applications of the technology
The improvements broaden the applications of the technology, which now include treatment of solutions resulting from dewatering of sludge or biosolids and containing extremely high levels of ammonia (500 to 1,500 parts per million), as well as tertiary treatment of solutions containing relatively low levels of ammonia (10 to 50 parts per million).
The AmmEL-HC system
The handling of sludge produced from municipal waste water treatment represents a major challenge for all levels of government. To develop a biosolid product that is free of environmental concerns, and can either be applied directly to the land or burned as an energy source, water must be removed from the sludge and the accompanying toxic levels of ammonia should be treated.
The AmmEL-HC system enables municipalities to achieve year-round compliance with government-mandated environmental standards and regulations.
The AmmEL-LC system
The alternative design, the AmmEL-LC system, is effective as a final treatment step before discharge to the environment of waters containing relatively low levels of ammonia that still exceed the recommended environmental guideline. This design can be directly applied to conventional waste water treatment facilities as well as lagoon-type waste water treatment facilities. Lagoon facilities are generally incapable of properly treating ammonia and subsequently release nitrate into receiving water bodies. The AmmEL-LC system has been successfully tested at the city of Guelph waste water treatment facility and at the Regional Municipality of Niagara's Garner Rd. biosolids handling site.
Management believes that the AmmEL-LC system has application to the approximately 1,000 lagoon facilities found in Canada alone. Similar numerous opportunities are known to exist globally. In northern regions, lagoons appear to be the system of choice, and the effects of nitrate pollution can be long lived. However, Enpar's AmmEL-LC system remains highly effective even under near-freezing conditions.
Enpar is currently in preliminary discussions with a leading international water treatment services company about a strategic alliance to exploit Enpar's AmmEL system. Shareholders will be kept informed of future developments on a timely basis.
US water index is in a nice uptrend...see chart below
The trend is bullish, it broke out from strong overhead resistance and is now overbought, expect a pullback that respects support at 640.
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$DJUSWU&p=D&yr=1&mn=0&dy=0&id=p26222966842&...
Monday, October 16, 2006
The Lure of Liquid Assets
By CHRISTOPHER C. WILLIAMS
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB116078723139892727.html
WALL STREET IS PUMPED ABOUT WATER, and for good reason. Globally, the $365
billion business is burgeoning as countries spend billions to repair and
build infrastructure to funnel clean water to people and industry. Some
experts think $1.5 trillion in capital spending could flow into the sector
in the next five years, promising a steady stream of business for a host of
companies, from pump makers to water utilities. The market, which
encompasses residential and industrial water and wastewater treatment and
services, is growing by 4% to 6% a year in developed countries, and as much
as 15% in emerging markets, estimates Goldman Sachs.
Less than 1% of the planet's water is drinkable. Yet, demand has been rising
steadily. A Unesco study estimates world consumption could reach 2,764
billion cubic kilometers by 2025, up from 2,182 billion in 2000.
To some degree, water stocks reflect the industry's bright prospects. The
Stanford Washington Research Group Water Index of 20 U.S. and international
stocks has returned 131% in the past five years, versus a puny 4% gain in
the Standand & Poor's 500 stock index. Much of the easy money has been made,
but investors willing to cast their nets a bit wider can find compelling
bargains.
Conglomerates such as General Electric (ticker: GE) and ITT (ITT) are a
growing presence in the water sector, but water is a relatively small piece
of their operations. European giants Suez (SZE) and RWE (RWE Frankfurt) have
been dominant players, but are retreating from the market. RWE, the German
electric utility, is planning to sell its American Water Works subsidiary to
the public through an initial public offering some time next year.
Among smaller companies, however, investment opportunities are rife. In the
U.S., Aqua America (WTR), the country's largest water utility, and equipment
makers Pentair (PNR) and Watts Water Technologies (WTS) look particularly
attractive. In addition to being well positioned to benefit from increased
water spending, all are viewed as potential takeover targets.
Paris-based water utility Veolia Environnement (VE) provides exposure to the
global water market, including China and Latin America, where water
shortages, huge spending on infrastructure and increasing regulations are
making water a hot business.
More direct plays on emerging markets include Companhia de Saneamento Basico
do Estado de Sao Paulo, or Sabesp (SBS), Latin America's largest water
utility, and Sinomem Technology (SINO Singapore), a small Singapore-based
membrane-technology company with a dominant share of China's pharmaceuticals
business. "In the medium to long term, some of the most desirable
opportunities will be in the international arena," says Francesca McCann of
Stanford, citing cheaper valuations and higher growth opportunities.
All six companies, profiled below, offer relatively direct plays on water,
as they garner at least 35% of their revenue from water-related products.
They sport an appealing price/earnings multiple of 15 times expected
earnings, on average, and most are growing by more than 10% a year. Fans see
at least 15% upside in each of the stocks. An impending catalyst: American
Water Works' prospective IPO.
The run-up in water shares leaves these companies little room for error,
even as investing in emerging markets presents significant economic risks.
But there is some justification for bulls to trumpet H2O as the oil of the
21st century. "The long-term story of water is as compelling as anything in
the investment world," says John Dickerson, president of Summit Global
Management, a West Coast manager specializing in water investing. "There's a
fixed supply and exploding demand."
Aqua America
The U.S. water-utility industry, composed of 55,000 separate water systems,
has been consolidated in the past decade through mergers and acquisitions,
many involving foreign water conglomerates. Today, only 11 independent,
publicly traded companies remain, half the number of 10 years ago.
Water World: The planet's awash in the stuff, yet under 1% of the world's
water supply is drinkable. Rising consumption, particularly in developing
economies, is making fresh water increasingly scarce.
Aqua America of Bryn Mawr, Pa., is the largest among the survivors,
providing water and waste-water services to 2.5 million customers in 13
states. Some industry analysts, such as Deane Dray of Goldman Sachs, think
Aqua eventually will be snapped up, as its stock-market capitalization is a
modest $3 billion. But CEO Nicholas DeBenedictis says Aqua "wants to be
independent." In fact, it has thrived as the leading acquirer in the sector,
buying more than 100 companies in the past five years.
Aqua and other utilities, including American States Water (AWR), have
benefited from a healthy rate environment.
Aqua, which is generating about $500 million in revenue, is seeing between
3% and 5% annualized rate increases. As the industry leader, the company
also is well positioned to benefit from heavy spending on water
infrastructure -- about $280 billion over the next 20 years, according to
Environmental Protection Agency projections.
Aqua trades for 23 a share. For a stock in a regulated industry, it looks
pricey at 27 times analysts' estimated 2007 profits of 84 cents a share.
Yet, the shares are cheaper than they've been in a while, trading well below
their 52-week high of 29.79.
William Brennan, manager of the Praetor Global Water Equities Fund, has been
buying the shares, and says the company should have little trouble meeting
management's long-term goals of 7% annual revenue growth, 10% earnings
growth and a 5% dividend yield. (The stock currently yields 2.03%.) If the
company stays on course, its shares could appreciate more than 20% in the
coming year -- continuing a decade-long trend of 25%-plus annual gains.
"Investors will pay up for earnings consistency, and a business model that
represents a growing customer base coupled with guaranteed rate increases,"
says Brennan.
Pentair
One of the most compelling turnaround stories in the water sector is
Pentair, a Golden Valley, Minn., maker of fluid-handling systems and
industrial products. The stock has lost 16% in the past 12 months, after
several quarters of earnings misses, and now trades for 29, or 14 times
estimated 2007 earnings of $2.12 a share. Earnings per share this year
should drop 10 cents, to $1.82.
Pentair is struggling to integrate parts of Wicor Industries, a pump and
pressure-tank maker it bought in 2004. In addition, pool-business profits
are down due to weakness in housing. The sale of water and waste-water pumps
to commercial and residential customers accounted for 74% of last year's
sales of $3 billion, while electrical and electronic enclosures chipped in
the rest.
Table: Water Companies1Pentair CEO Randall Hogan says the commercial water
segment is "booming."
Pentair is celebrating its 40th birthday this year, but some investors are
betting it won't be around to see many more, as the dominant player in the
$50 billion water-components market could attract buyers. Brennan of Praetor
Global, a shareholder, sees a deal within a year.
Pentair is boosting its share-buyback program, streamlining management and
expanding in markets such as China. "Next year. we expect to get back on
track with margin expansion even if the residential market stays weak," says
Hogan.
If so, earnings could rebound sharply and push the stock back to the
mid-30s. "They have fixable issues," says Brennan.
Watts Water Technologies
Like Pentair, Watts is benefiting from annual growth of 4% to 6% in the $87
billion U.S. water market, as increasing consumption and infrastructure
spending spur demand for its valve and flow-control products. Also like
Pentair, North Andover, Mass.-based Watts relies on acquisitions for growth.
But the similarities end there.
While Pentair is suffering indigestion from its acquisitions, Watts has
feasted on deals and doubled its business in the past five years. The
company posted a 12% increase in earnings per share last year, to $1.67, on
$924 million in revenue.
Watts showed organic growth of 8% in its most recent quarter. The company
recently reported a 32% increase in total second-quarter sales, continuing
its habit of beating analysts' quarterly projections. Earnings per share
could jump to $2.16 this year, and grow by 15% in each of the next three
years. Watts has been expanding overseas, and gets more than 30% of its
business from Europe and China.
A protracted downturn in housing could depress Watts' consumer business.
Higher copper and materials costs may also pose problems, but the company so
far has been able to pass these along to customers.
Watts trades at about 35, or 16.3 times this year's expected earnings.
Needham & Co. analyst Mark Grzymski upgraded the stock to Buy in early
August with a 38 price target, notwithstanding the "lingering possibility of
gross-margin compression due to the inflationary environment." Watts hit a
52-week high of 40.03 in May.
Veolia Environnement
Swiss investment bank Pictet & Cie. estimates Europe will need to spend $600
billion to $700 billion in the next 20 years on water investments. Many
water-industry players will benefit, including United Utilities (UU) in the
U.K., Geberit (GEBN Zurich), a Swiss plumbing and plastics-technology firm,
and Suez. But 150-year-old Veolia, the world's largest water utility, is a
more direct play than Suez, which is merging with the power utility Gaz de
France.
Jump In, the Water's Fine: Heavy spending on water systems and treatment
means big business for a host of companies across the globe -- and juicy
returns for shareholders. The six companies listed here are well-positioned,
and offer both value and growth investors compelling opportunities to play
the burgeoning market. Shares of some of them, namely Veolia and Sabesp,
already have had big gains, but fans believe they have yet to hit their
high-water marks.
Water accounts for more than 30% of Veolia's annual revenue of â,¬25
billion; the company also has energy and transportation operations. Veolia
generates more than half its business outside France, although the local
market is robust. France's per-capita use of water is second only to the
U.S.', and its $10 billion municipal water market has drawn the attention of
GE, which may buy more water assets in the country.
Veolia's shares dropped sharply this summer, after management expressed
interest in buying the Italian construction company Vinci. Analysts failed
to appreciate the logic of the deal. But the shares rebounded after the plan
was ditched, and now sell for â,¬47. The American depositary receipts trade
around 60.
If Veolia focuses on cutting costs instead of striking potentially
disruptive deals, its shares, which sell for 16 times 2007 earnings, should
remain buoyant, and profits could grow by 18% a year. "It's a great story
with high visibility," says Hans Peter Portner, a manager with the Pictet
Water Fund, who is betting his largest holding reaches 60 in three years.
Sabesp
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's economic policies have kept
inflation low and the real strong. Both have helped the giant water utility
known as Sabesp, which posted a 68.7% jump in net profits last year. While
the company's results have moderated this year, Sabesp still is expected to
grow annual earnings at a 10%-plus clip for several years, above the
industry's average 8.5% pace, notes Morningstar.
The water market in South America should grow 4% a year, and Sabesp is one
of the best ways to play it. The stock, which trades on the Sao Paulo
exchange, is up 73% this year in local currency, while the NYSE-listed ADRs
have gained 88%, to 31.
Sabesp is the largest water utility in the Americas and No. 3 worldwide,
serving about 26 million people in the state of Sao Paulo with water and
sewage collection. It generated sales of $2 billion last year, mostly from
concession contracts with municipalities and is 50%-owned by the state of
Sao Paulo. It has been winning tariffs, or rate increases, at a faster rate
than inflation, helping it generate stable cash flow.
Despite its shares' run-up, Sabesp trades for just eight times expected
earnings, a steep discount to U.S. water utilities -- a so-called
emerging-market discount. Investors also worry about state ownership, and
the possibility that the government could enact policies detrimental to
shareholders.
Still, they are not risking much to bet that the Brazilian government
continues to allow the utility reasonable rate increases. "This is a
conservative way to take a chance on Brazil," says John Maloney of New
York-based M&R Capital Management. "As water companies go, it's a true
growth story and very reasonable value." Maloney values the ADRs at 37, some
20% above current prices.
Sinomem Technology
Throughout Asia, dynamic economies are straining against inadequate water
infrastructure. A fourth of China's 1.3 billion population is without
adequate drinking water, says Goldman Sachs. This has prompted the
government to pledge around $125 billion for water treatment and
infrastructure in the next five years. The Asian water market is expected to
grow 13% a year, says Frost & Sullivan, while the Chinese market is
increasing by 20%.
To increase investment, China is opening its water market to the private
sector, and companies like water-treatment provider Sinomem have jumped in.
Formed in 1996, Sinomem provides membrane-based separation and purification
technologies, mostly to the pharmaceutical industry. Headquartered in
Singapore with production facilities in China, it is one of the few
pure-play treatment companies in Asia.
Sales and profits have grown steadily in recent years. Sales reached 81
million Singapore dollars ($51 million), last year, and Goldman says the
company has better margins than similar concerns. The knock on Sinomem is
that it's tiny, with a market value below $300 million. It trades on
Singapore's exchange for S$0.91, up 30% this year, but Goldman has a S$1.09
price target.
John Dickerson of Summit Global recommends that investors buy a basket of
Singapore-listed water-related stocks, including Sinomem, Hyflux (HYF
Singapore) and Bio-Treat Technology (BIOT Singapore). Hyflux is pushing into
the Indian water market, and Bio-Treat's business pipeline is good.
THE YEAR-OLD PowerShares Water Resources Portfolio (PHO), an exchange-traded
fund, is a basket of global water stocks; it's up 15% on the year.
Stock-picking may be the wiser approach these days, however, as merger
activity in the sector, which once lifted all boats, abates. The six stocks
above are a good way to get your feet wet, without getting soaked.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail comments to editors@barrons.com2
Ron is pumping water utilities http://www.cfcw.com/
UNITED UTILITIES PLC ADS http://www.unitedutilities.com
Water heats up for investors
TAVIA GRANT
Globe and Mail Update
The world may be awash in water, but the prospect of a scarcity of useable supplies has already made it a hotter investment than oil.
Canada has one of the world's largest supplies of fresh water. But because control remains in the public domain, there are few ways for Canadians to directly invest in the resource.
Instead, funds such as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which this month launched a bid for a British water utility, are looking outside the country's borders.
It's a looming issue. By 2025, about two-thirds of the world's population will face water shortages, according to the United Nations. Only 1 per cent of the world's water is available for human consumption, an amount seen shrinking further because of urbanization, population growth, climate change and contamination of water sources, a 40-page UBS Investment Research report noted this week.
In Europe, meantime, the water business is booming — and so are investments. The world's first water fund, launched by Geneva-based Pictet Asset Management in 2000, has risen 40 per cent since its start, compared with the MSCI World index's 27-per-cent gain.
Water “is very promising for the future because of this need for investment in the coming years,” said Louis-Mathieu Perrin, one of the portfolio managers who runs Pictet's $3.1-billion (Canadian) fund. He expects the sector to grow about 8 per cent a year in the long term.
Pictet estimates about $70-billion (U.S.) a year is needed worldwide to fund basic water services. In the United States alone, it pegs the investment need at $1-trillion over the next 20 years.
Mr. Perrin's fund, which isn't available in Canada, invests in water treatment companies, along with distributors, technology firms and bottled-water companies.
In Canada there are few, if any, water funds. That's not to say investors aren't interested.
“It's a great area,” said Stephen Gauthier, a partner at investment firm Gauthier & Cie. in Montreal. “Here in North America, we have water for free so we have . . . constraints. But I think it's coming.”
Tom Bell, who's run the Water Investment Newsletter over the past two decades, says he's seen interest in the sector explode in the past few years. “Water utilities will continue to be strong because it's a captive market — you have to have it,” said Mr. Bell, who's based in Halstead, Kan. In the United States, most of the water infrastructure is more than 100 years old and will require massive reinvestment, he added.
PowerShares Water Resources, a U.S. fund, has risen 12 per cent this year, double the pace of the S&P 500. And U.S. companies such as General Electric Co. and Dow Chemical Co. have recently made big forays into water. In March, GE bought the Canadian company Zenon Environmental Inc., a water treatment firm.
Water isn't a commodity like oil because water prices tend to be decided locally, rather than on a global market. And unlike oil, water is also not exported en masse to other countries — yet.
Nonetheless, comparisons with oil returns are tempting. Over the past 16 years, water and oil prices have appreciated by the same amount, according to Pictet. However, in the last two years, the Bloomberg world water index, which comprises 12 utilities, has gained about 85 per cent, outstripping the 23-per-cent increase in oil futures in New York.
Much of the recent gains have been in Europe, where bidding wars for water utilities are leading some analysts to call the sector overvalued. That's not deterring investors such as the CPP Investment Board. This week, a consortium it is part of boosted an offer for AWG PLC to $4.7-billion (Canadian).
Privatization is a growing — but controversial — theme. The move to invest in privatized water, however, has been criticized by many citizens' groups. “We see water as a basic human right, and so it shouldn't be privatized or delivered on a for-profit basis,” said Brent Patterson, director of the Council of Canadians. He said private British water utilities are among the worst polluters in the country.
WWAT ...10/10/06, we will post our best quarter in the company's history when we report full financial results in mid-November,' said Quentin T. Kelly, Chairman of WorldWater & Power Corp. 'We are on course for continued improvement during the fourth quarter and have basis to project significantly stronger growth in 2007. We also expect to close the Entech acquisition by the end of 2006 and are currently submitting joint bids on projects as large as 50 Megawatts in size. In addition, geopolitical events continue to provide tremendous growth opportunities for the solar industry.
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?c=WWAT,uu[r,a]decayyay[dd][pc7!b10!c20!f][vc60][iub10!uj[$vxn]!ul14!l...
Time to tap Canada's water riches
We should ignore left-wing bleating and exploit this renewable resource
Except for recreation, Canadians often take their vast freshwater resources for granted.
Diane Francis, Financial Post
Published: Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Oil was the focus at the Global Business Forum in Banff, Alta., last week, but water will become the New Oil.
And Canada has an embarrassment of riches, while other nations are sorely disadvantaged. Fresh figures from an expert invited to the conference underscored a very bright future for Canada's water largesse.
For instance, one pipeline carrying surplus fresh water from Manitoba to Texas could double provincial and municipal government revenues each year.
"It would cost between $4-billion and $9-billion to build a pipeline of water to Texas from Manitoba," said Paul Wihbey, president of GWEST LLC of Washington. "Annual revenue could be $7-billion, which is about the current budget of the provincial government and City of Winnipeg government combined."
The problem, of course, is pricing. But that will be sorted out soon as parched areas of the United States and the rest of the world begin to attach economic value to the commodity.
"Bulk-water exports will take place from Canada -- Manitoba, Newfoundland, Quebec and British Columbia -- in two to five years," said Mr. Wihbey. GWEST is an acronym for Global Water & Energy Strategy Team and is a think-tank that, among other collaborations, teams up to prepare a quarterly energy report with investment bank FirstEnergy Capital Corp. of Calgary.
Their quarterly reports have examined many related topics since 2003 such as shifting energy centres of gravity, security of supply, terrorism, OPEC, technological breakthroughs and alternative energies.
Ironically, Canada's wing-nut politicians -- Liberals and NDPers in particular -- have spoken out against water exports, as though it was somehow bad for the nation or that Canadians would die of thirst.
Some even spoke about water as the "hidden agenda" behind free trade with the United States. But water is in huge surplus in Canada and is, unlike oil or natural gas or metals and minerals, a renewable resource.
Here are the facts Mr. Wihbey recounted, drawn from a number of global sources:
- Worldwide, 68% of all fresh water is contained in ice caps and glaciers; 30% in groundwater and 2% in surface water. Surface water is the cheapest to harness or transport. Canada has the world's greatest abundance.
- About 9% of Canada's entire acreage is surface water, or roughly the size of British Columbia. (This includes our part of the Great Lakes, which are shared with the United States.)
- Canada has less than 1% of the world's population and 20% of its fresh water.
- Quebec has a minuscule percentage of the world's population and 3% of the world's fresh water.
- Some 0.5% of Newfoundland's freshwater resources total 1.5 billion cubic metres per year, which could fill 3,000 supertankers annually and make billions annually in export revenue.
- The United States produces enough water for its needs by using 86 billion gallons per day of surface water and 320 billion gallons per day of groundwater, from wells and aquifers. Many of these underground resources are depleting rapidly, notably in the agricultural Midwest, South and Southwest regions.
- China's biggest political and economic problem is the allocation of water. It has 20% of the world's population and 7% of its global water supply. Some 320 million Chinese are without decent, sufficient supplies.
- China's Yellow River did not reach the ocean last year for 200 out of 365 days because levels are so low due to excessive industrial and agricultural usage.
- The Middle East has 5% of the world's population and 1% of its water. The population of the Middle East by 2020 will grow from 260 million to 460 million.
- Mexico City is overpopulated and urban areas are beginning to be plagued with sizeable sinkholes as groundwater is removed beneath structures.
Water was the topic at this forum, mostly concerned with oil issues, because production around the world is increasingly dependent upon readily available water supplies. Water is used to inject steam to coax heavy, less-valuable oil out of underground fields, as well as heavily used in the upgrading and mining process for Alberta's gigantic oilsands.
In fact, some have worried that semi-arid Alberta doesn't have sufficient water to sustain the development of the oilsands, where production is estimated to grow from one million barrels daily to four million barrels by 2015.
"There is no problem there," said Mr. Wihbey. "The oil and gas industry has been allocated 7.2% of potable water in the province, which is more than enough."
Hopefully, water won't be a rallying cry for the economically and technologically ignorant left-of-centre parties in Canada or its provinces.
Fresh water represents another massive opportunity bestowed on the country, which could benefit every Canadian in future. As well, it's a matter of responsible stewardship. The price and terms must be fair.
Public warned water may go private
by John Campbell
The Independent
The private sector "could end up owning" public water systems in Ontario if
the provincial government adopts the "misguided recommendations" of a water
strategy expert panel, Trent Hills councillor Rosemary Kelleher-MacLennan
said last week in her last official statement as the chair of the Ontario
Municipal Water Association (OMWA).
Speaking at the association's annual meeting May 1 in Toronto, Ms.
Kelleher-MacLennan called upon Queen's Park to reject the proposals of the
panel in its report, Watertight: The Case for Change in Ontario's Water and
Wastewater Sector, "and to enshrine in legislation the fundamental principle
that the province's water systems are to remain publicly owned."
Of particular concern to the OMWA is a recommendation that counties, single
tier municipalities and regional municipalities prepare business plans on
how they will amalgamate water systems within their boundaries (and beyond)
to achieve greater cost-efficiencies. An Ontario Water Board would be
created with authority to approve the plans or demand changes.
The panel states "it should be open to municipalities to organize their
water and wastewater services as corporations," either as non-profit or
for-profit.
Corporatized utility a worry
The "corporatized utility model, where the municipality owns the
corporation, offers the greatest benefits in terms of governance,
transparency, financial sustainability and accountability."
"We see that as opening the way to dismantling public ownership," Ms.
Kelleher-MacLennan said.
Privatization, in turn, "could lead to exorbitant rates" because the company
would need to provide a return on investment for shareholders. It could also
open the door to the "export of our water," she said in an interview.
Ms. Kelleher-MacLennan told The Independent the OMWA is taking "a strong
stand" because there has been "little movement" by the government in
response to the concerns it raised after the report was released last July.
http://www.eastnorthumberland.com/index.php
WWAT...I have not done the DD on this but the chart provided a nice technical buy, am now watching the pull back for a new buy trigger.
Oh yeah. Sorry, I can be a little brain dead sometimes LOL
From your profile:
Ice hockey, money
Good hobbies? No comprende, amigo
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