The political-institutional framework for water management was inaugurated in Brazil with the promulgation of Federal Law number 9.433 of 1997. The model defined by the legislation was the result of a complex debate between political agents, specialists and service users, and generally received very positive reactions celebrating the fact that Brazil was carrying out a reorganisation of the sector attuned to contemporary global trends - more horizontal, decentralised, participatory and effective. This model would allow for the environmental, economic, political, social and territorial dimensions of water use to be coordinated all at once. Hence, a river basin is defined as a territorial unit for implementing the water resources policy and a basin committee as a managing body for this territorial unit, with important responsibilities including conflict resolution, approval and monitoring of water resources plans, and setting up of systems for charging in the water use. The present work has as objective to study the forms of participative management aimed at dealing with water resources, carried out through the action of river basin committees, specifically the Piabanha Committee, with action on area of the river basin of the Rivers: Piabanha, Paquequer and Preto. Looking for to understand the perception and knowledge of the active members and collaborators in relation to their role, as well as their importance as a normative and deliberative instance in the context of water resources. In order to carry out the study we opted for qualitative research methodology, where through participant observation we followed the periodic meetings of said committee, and through semi-structured interviews we opened a listening channel with its members and collaborators, in this way it was possible to identify what they value most and what are the actions taken to make decisions.