The notion that water is an essential resource is now universally accepted and the concept will continue to play an important role in the years to come. But what kind of water are we considering and what values should be attributed to it in function of its origin, its quality and the needs of the person or people who are talking about it? The aim of this paper is to examine different kinds of water, from river water to tap water, rainwater to recycled water, and to analyse the value or values attached to each kind of water in terms of the function of the type of usage attributed to it in various spatio-temporal contexts.