Define water? Lake Superior, or a mountain stream?
Bees need water for evaporative cooling in the summer and for raising brood. Having a source of water nearby is a good thing. My bees like sucking water out of mud, peat moss, or sawdust I have setting a 5 gallon bucket waiting to get dumped. Sometimes, lazy pays! They also like bird baths.
They have no problem flying to a water source, so it’s not like you need to park your hives on some river bank. I would probably go for a sunny site over river bank myself.