A former professor at Stanford and Princeton, John McAlister, the co-founder and CEO of water recycling firm AquaBioTronic (ABT), has made it his business to educate foreign managers about China's impending water crisis. He accused the managers of 'destroying this country'.

Dr McAlister said that foreign investors who failed to declare China's water shortage in their due diligence reports were failing shareholders: 'Water supply will be hit and there will be failures. Somebody in the US will then initiate litigation.'

Dr McAlister (right) warns of water wars and social uprising - 'another Boxer Rebellion' - if China fails to get a grip on its water policies. 'We rage, rage, rage against the dying of the light,' he said apocalyptically. 'And believe me, it's dying, and it's dying fast.'