Education for sustainable development (ESD) aims at enabling people to make a contribution to sustainable development. Its central educational goal is the development of sustainability key competencies. Water is one of the bases of life on earth and so an important topic for ESD. ESD can help to increase the awareness of water issues and to promote the careful use of water resources. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the relevance of water as a topic for ESD and to show the approaches and methods that can be used in ESD to raise awareness of the importance of natural resources and develop competencies for the sustainable development of our global society. The International Decade “Water for Life” can be seen as a good context for these educational objectives.