The designing of heat exchanger networks (HENs), mass exchanger networks (MENs), and water networks (WNs) is a major topic of process system engineering. The WN problem is most recent, and although the seminal work was published in 1980, the real development should be dated from 1994. Increasing public concern on scarce water resources, together with stringent regulations on wastewater discharge, has caused a great number of publications in recent years. Despite noticeable achievements in the topic, there is still a need for robust flexible approaches that will find wider application in practice. This review provides the reader with literature annotations on the WN problem from the year 1980 and follows the format of an earlier HEN review paper [Furman, K. C.; Sahinidis, N. V. A critical revue and annotated bibliography for heat exchanger network synthesis in the 20th century. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2002, 41, 2335-2370]. An analysis of the WN problem formulation also is given, together with an overview of solution techniques. Statistics and classifications of the literature annotations are provided. Finally, thoughts on the direction of future research are presented.