One who's near water abroad saving lives (5)
I believe the answer is:
miser
'one who's near' is the definition.
('near' can mean 'miserly')
'water abroad saving lives' is the wordplay.
'water abroad' becomes 'mer' ('sea' in French).
'saving' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'lives' becomes 'is' ('be' can be a synonym of 'live').
'mer' going around 'is' is 'MISER'.
(Other definitions for miser that I've seen before include "Tight-fisted person" , "Mean-minded type" , "He's close" , "Penny-pincher" , "One such as Scrooge" .)