The French experience, structured in form of basin committees, constitute a reference for public participation in water management. Community's participation in water management in the French system has significantly improved during the last 40 years, and offers presently a set of features in terms of strategy of participation. These developments have resulted from a long process of active involvement of communities, and from the assessment and the reformulation of methodologies. The countries that adopted the French principles for public participation did not incorporate such an evolution. Nevertheless the challenge to respond to conflicts enabled the reinterpretation of the French model. Thus its appropriation is now more contextualized and its systems improved. In European countries community legislation on water management attributes substantial value to the component of community participation, bringing new challenges to the member states, which in general, with few exceptions, are not prepared to give appropriate answers. This work addresses the issue of participation strategies adopted by the public policies of water management in countries of the South - Brazil and Mozambique- and of the North - France and Portugal. Differences in active and passive processes of participation are outlined.