In recent years, frequent urban water disasters have brought great damage and casualties, restricting the benign operation and sustainable development of the city. Based on the theory of good governance, only by the cooperation of government and citizens can the good management come true. The participation of citizens in preventing and controlling urban water disasters is an inevitable choice to make up the governments limitation and to correct their own anomie behavior. We should strengthen the citizen participation, creating active, institutionalized, organized and diverse ways of citizen participation in order to explore an optimal path of preventing and controlling urban water disasters.