Not a real chemist but my understanding is that there is no other solvent with all of water's properties - cohesion, adhesion, high specific heat, pH neutrality, polarity, density (in solid and liquid form), and reactivity - no matter how rare. It is the only "universal solvent" (for polar molecules). In order to imagine other forms of life, you'd have to make the jump from carbon to silicon based life forms. Unfortunately, the energies involved in the chemical bonds would mean that the reactions leading to self replicating molecules would have to happen at very high temperatures or densities which seem to make any life form extremely unlikely. Theoretically catalysts could lower the reaction thresholds enough for life to take hold, but it's an open question how such complex catalysts (enzymes) would emerge while bootstrapping replication. Earth went through just the right series of steps and until the planet cooled down, "stuff" just didn't stay in one place long enough to react and form big molecules.