The price of water is starting to rise in a big way, at least in China. I’ve expected this for a few years.

Water is essential for life. It’s quite literally an investment that you can’t live without. And while you might not be able to trade water futures on the Chicago Board of Trade, providing people with H2O is a $400 billion global industry, according to an article by Harvard’s Garry Emmons.

Water is, by far, the most important element we need to survive. You can go a month without eating, but not even a week without water. Lack of adequate drinking water has killed almost 800,000 people this year. Now politicians are throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at water and wastewater systems.

Karim Rahemtulla of the Smart Profits Report is on a mission. He is here to rescue you out of the darkness, doom and gloom and into the light on investing in the “brutal bear” market.

America’s dilapidated water infrastructure is in desperate need of upgrading, says Chris Mayer. And the situation is similar in many countries throughout the world. And worse still, supplies of clean, fresh water are dwindling across the globe. Chris says these two trends can make water a ‘blue gold’ for investors.

The Beijing Olympics are drawing international attention to China’s chronic pollution problem.

Environmental damage costs China more than $200 billion a year, or roughly 10 percent of its GDP. The country recently pledged to spend up to $125 billion on a massive cleanup, including the construction of over 10,000 wastewater treatment plants.

This makes Singapore’s water treatment companies well worth a look, according International Strategist editor Tom Dyson in DailyWealth.

Is the commodities boom over?

Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) has told clients to get out of commodities. The bank says China is slowing, oil will return to its “marginal cost of production” – somewhere between US$60 and $80 – and gold will settle around $650.

Dan Denning in The Daily Reckoning Australia says you have to take what analysts tell you with a fistful of salt. Most of the time they’re just morons who are making it up as they go along. The case for resource has yet to be disproven…

A water crisis is coming, says Special Situations guru Chris Mayer.

Fresh water supplies are drying up in the US, says Chris, even as a growing population and increased biofuel production create more demand. And water is still too cheap, given it’s demand.

This could soon change. As shortages become more frequent, the price of water resources will go up. This makes the industry a promising investment play. More from Chris…

The US National Center for Health Statistics just reported a population milestone. In 2007, 4,315,000 babies were born in the US. This means that more babies were born in the US last year than any other year in history.

It flows free from our taps and faucets every day, yet many people don’t realize that water may not have the limitless supply we once thought. Many areas of the world are at risk of not having enough fresh water to go around. Capital & Crisis’ Chris Mayer gives us the lowdown on one such area where water monitoring is taking place.