Oh ya, there's still a bit of ice water on the surface. Also a large quantity at both poles (primarily on the South pole, whereas frozen CO2 tends to collect more on the North pole). There's even evidence of temporary crater puddles on nice days.

But it's a very small amount of the suspected former total (perhaps 10% to 1% or much less). Assuming that the Martian canyons and valleys that appear to be carved out by water were actually carved out by water, they were absolutely torrential floods - of a scale unlike ever seen on Earth. Now? Ice glaze. Polar snow flurries. Underground ices. Hypersaline water tables, perhaps. Dusty crusty dune ice at the poles.

It's not so much that the Martian hydrosphere isn't present, it's that it doesn't resemble ours much at all. And figuring out how life might fit into the present day is tricky: Mars is essentially a much drier and colder Antarctica.