Global water challenges include addressing the unmet water needs of the world's poor, reversing the assault on critical freshwater ecosystems, and finding more efficient and equitable mechanisms for allocating water as a scarce resource. As water use intensifies and water scarcity increases for many of the world's people, finding effective ways to resolve water-related conflicts will be crucial to effective water governance. Particularly important sites for water conflict management include the governance of internationally shared river basins, the controversies surrounding large dams and water-infrastructure projects, and questions of pricing, ownership and access to municipal water supplies. A common theme in each of these cases is the need to deepen the participation of a wider array of actors in water governance and decision-making, and the need to acknowledge rather than suppress conflicting interests and dissenting views.