Investors can follow the lead from Dr Michael Burray, the GFC-predicting protagonist from Michael Lewis' The Big Short, and invest in one of the world's most urgent themes: water.
In China, 80 per cent of rivers are too toxic for fish; in the United States, Californian authorities spend about $US20 billion annually on their water supply and in Australia, there is a $30 billion water trading market, thanks to agricultural reforms in the mid-2000's.
Water scarcity is proving a lucrative global theme, combining a demographic trend with the threat of climate change.
Around $US7.5 trillion ($10.1 trillion) is the projected global spend in water infrastructure over the next 15 years, according to the World Economic Forum, and as international regulation is tightened, $US300 billion is slated to address water pollution by China's Water 10 plan.
"It's impossible to overstate our dependence on water," said Ian Simm, chief executive of Impax Asset Management, which has ??5.5 billion ($9.48 billion) assets under management.
"And businesses are focused on things from smart irrigation to maintaining drinking quality to water distribution efficiency and huge dam engineering projects, mean there are hundreds of entry points for investors."
Ways to invest
Impax has invested $2.9 billion into around 40 water global water stocks, largely focused on infrastructure and water utility plays, and since the fund's inception in 2009 has returned 13.4 per cent to shareholders.
There are three main avenues to invest in water: purchase water rights, invest in water-rich farmland and invest in water utilities, infrastructure and equipment.
Mr Simms points to the likes of French multinational SUEZ, American Danahar Corporation and Swiss Georg Fischer as large and diversified firms capitalising on the voracious demand for water infrastructure and new technologies.
More locally, an advanced water trading scheme in Australia was introduced in the mid-2000s, and allows investors to buy water rights that were previously owned by farmers.
Water in the Murray-Darling Basin is allocated to landholders such as farmers who can either use it on their property or offer it for sale. The federal government decides how much water can be removed, based around rainfall levels.
Brisbane-based Blue Sky Alternative Investment fund has $2.7 billion under management and actively trades water rights in the Murray Darling.
"Water and agriculture demand has been growing strongly," Rob Shand, chief operating officer at Blue Sky, said. "It's one of Australia's strengths globally and with the food boom in Asia's emerging middle class, it's an enormous opportunity for us as a country and for our business as well."
Water stocks
At the high-tech end of the water sector, Israeli firm Emefcy Group has received plenty of investor interest in the past few weeks.
Emefcy has developed a Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) product that enables wastewater to be reused for specific purposes such as crop irrigation. Emefcy has designed its technology for remote areas, invariably in poor parts of the world that suffer from severe water shortages.
The company announced it has three new commercial agreements in China and investors have flooded into the stock; it has soared 27 per cent so far since the beginning of May.
"Anything that looks to contribute solutions to China's extremely serious water issues is likely to receive investor interest," Tom King, chief investment officer of Nanuk Asset Management, said. "But a lot of these smaller companies have a lot of value ascribed to the future."
