THE UNIVERSAL SOLVENT
Water is a polar molecule.
Due to the polar nature of water, NaCl can be broken up into its ions. For example, NaCl breaks up into Na+ and Cl-, which means that the hydrogen side of water (+) attracts the Cl- ions, and the Na+ ions are attracted to the oxygen side of water. This is how solid substances are dissolved into water, and this is why water is so valuable to the chemistry world.