The goal of the present paper is to investigate wear properties of journal sliding bearing operating in the conditions of contaminated water lubrication. Several bearing materials and bearing sleeve designs (differing in the axial grooves position and their shape) were tested experimentally under typical operating conditions in a dedicated test rig, which was equipped with a lubricating system, enabling lubrication with contaminated water. Results of the tests show that water contamination has a strong impact on the wear of the bearing system elements. It was revealed that some of the tested materials are beneficial in such demanding conditions and demonstrate lower wear rates. The design of the bearing bush also seems to have an impact on the wear, because bearings of different designs made from the same material demonstrated differences exceeding 100 %. Higher water velocity in the lubricating grooves helps to minimize the wear of the stainless steel shaft. This was also confirmed by numerical simulations.