As people in the emerging economies of India and China make the transition to western standards of living there is an often-overlooked issue – their water consumption is rising dramatically. To put the water issues of the emerging economies into perspective here are some quick facts:
§ China has only 8% of the world’s fresh water to meet the needs of 22% of the world’s people.
§ In India, urban water demand is expected to double—and industrial demand to triple—by 2025.
§ To support the diets of the additional 1.7 billion people expected to join the human population by 2030 at today’s average water consumption would require 2,040 cubic kilometers of water per year—as much as the annual flow of 24 Nile Rivers.
We believe that the water issues in China and India will put greater demand on the world agriculture commodity markets, produce higher real commodity prices over time and create large demand for productive farmland in politically stable regions of the world with stable export capacity. Once such region which has all these characteristics is western Canada with its large farmland base, first world infrastructure, political stability and a huge exporting capacity.