^ not unique about water at all, all the elements are special in that sense.
How amazing for water to be liquid at 1 bar and 0°c!
Did you know that there are many more states other than solid liquid gas and plasma?
something like 19 structures of ice.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m0ltw
Here's another good recent podcast episode on the topic of water/life elsewhere.
testing the extremes of earth gives us some idea.
to the original question there's a difference between anthropomorphic and 'like us'
there probably are silicon and other such beings, but as much as we know carbon/water is more likely