Have not seen a thread on this, if there's one I'm happy to move it there.
Water scarcity and management is one of the biggest trends of the next few decades and there doesn't seem to be a lot of people paying attention to it other than your typical ESG guys. Not a whole lot of ways to play it, but a few names have come up from spinoffs over the the past few years.
There's different ways to get exposure to it and different sub-sectors have different economics and growth rates.
Here's an old Goldman primer that provides a good introduction. http://venturecenter.co.in/water/pdf/2008-goldman-sachs-water-primer.pdf
Some names are:
Xylem (XYL), Evoqua (AQUA) for Water technology and water treatment (utilities and industrial)
Pentair (PNR) for filtration solutions, pool products
Watts Water Tech (WTS), Mueller (MWA) for pumps, valves, plumbing, drainage, fire safety etc. (think of it as the hardware or piping)
Roper (ROP) has a smart-metering exposure through their Neptune subsidiary
Ecolab (ECL) industrial water treatment and cleaning solutions
Most of these guys are trying to incorporate some sort of software solution/IoT into their businesses but I haven't seen much traction yet.
Anyone following this space or have any thoughts?