Water, water everywhere. Should you take a drink?

Q: What's a good and easy way to invest in water?

A: Plain old, clean water used to be something we took for granted. But increasingly, investors arelooking to water as the next best thing since computers or the Internet. Consider multiplestraightforward improvements that are able to be madeto a common

centrifugal or positive displacement pump. For pumps that have overhung impellers, replacing theshaft with a solid shaft is a straightforward change instead of the standard sleeved shafts.Mechanical seals ought to be improved by using silicon carbide faces, and elastomers can bechanged to Viton. Finally, magnetic bearing protectors are a vast improvement over the lip sealswhich nearly all commercial pumps depend on to keep bearing sump oil clean.

Already, many consumers are willing to pay more for water than. Most installed pumps were notoriginally sourced for their present function. Frequently, a line in a plant is relocated and the pumpthat at one time provided cooling water to an injection molding machine is now asked to transfer oilfrom a rail car to a tank. All too often, this causes a substantial number of problems for the pumpand the facility. Pumps operate where the pump curve crosses the system curve. If you move a pumpfrom one system to another, this means that the system curve is different. This new system maycause the pump to operate away from its best efficiency point, leading to shaft breakage and othercomponent failures that are merely symptoms of a mis-matched pump and system.for a soda.

That's not lost on investors. There are scores of companies researching all angles of the waterbusiness, and there are countless ways to play it.

The most difficult, and riskiest way, to invest in water would be to try to pick individual companies.Companies like Danaher dhr, a diversified company with a water treatment business, and Flowservefls, a maker of pumps, valves and seals, have a strong interest in water. But unless you already havea diversified portfolio, buying individual components of a centrifugal pump stocks can betreacherous, not least because you are putting all your eggs in one basket. You also don't want tooverpay. And you need a reasonable expectation of the company's future earnings and revenuegrowth.

But, if you're determined to invest in water and don't want to hassle with individual stocks, there'san easier way. There are several exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, that own baskets of watercompanies.

Owning water stocks through an ETF offers several benefits. For one, you get exposure to manycompanies, so if one fails, or takes off, you have it in your portfolio. Owning a basket also reducesyour need to do a lot of research on individual companies.

Due to the popularity of water as an investment, there are several ETF options, including:

PowerShares Water Resouces Portfolio phoFirst Trust ISE Water Index fiwPowerShares GlobalWater Portfolio pioClaymore S&P Global Water ETF cgw

Just be careful. Many trends that seem like money in the bank, such as Internet and ethanol stocks,are notoriously tricky to make money on. It's difficult, if not impossible, to buy and sell at the righttimes.

Most investors are better off sticking with mutual funds or ETFs that own diversified portfolios ofstocks that mirror broad indexes, and which may own pieces of water companies as well.

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY. He answers a different reader questionevery weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt atmkrantz@usatoday.com.