'Put politics aside': Water campaigners put solutions forward

The Speak Up Campaign wants to leave politics at the table and start working with communities in a bid to solve "unsolvable problems".

Speak Up chairman Shelley Scoullar acknowledged water is a complicated area, but said the time had come for all stakeholders to work together for better.

"Water reform has been over-complicated because too many decisions are based on what is best for the political future or ideology, instead of focusing on the core areas that need to be addressed," Mrs Scoullar said.

She said Speak Up had been trying to work with governments for more than eight years, as well as numerous landholders and farming groups to develop better ways to deliver water reform.

With the Murray-Darling Basin Plan making headlines at both a state and federal level last year after changes were made to water legislation by the Commonwealth.

"At present, there is a real risk the Basin Plan will go down in history as one of our nation's greatest failings ," Mrs Scoullar said.

"This can be averted with some priority changes."

One of the first areas the Speak Up Campaign believes needs to be addressed is water trading.

The organisation said its recommendation is a "one trade rule" where water entitlement can only be traded once per season and must be traded to a landholder and used for productive purposes.

The group also reaffirmed the need for an open, transparent and publicly accessible water ownership platform, which does not provide individual contact details.

Mrs Scoullar added wasted water through evaporation should also be on the agenda.

"Fixing this waste would simply involve improved management of the Lower Lakes, including infrastructure works and returning water that currently flows out to sea to the Southern Coorong.

"It has been argued this would jeopardise South Australia's drinking water supplies, but this would not be an issue if evaporation was reduced. There is no reason why water cannot be diverted directly from the Murray River ... there was also the option of increasing use of the SA desalination plant, which lays idle after being built at significant taxpayer expense."

One other issue the campaign highlighted was connectivity flows from the Darling River to the Murray River.

"The fish kills and other environmental degradation is a Darling River issue, which cannot be fixed by increasing Murray River flows," Mrs Scoullar said.

"The solution could be reduced carryover or extraction from the Northern Basin and this may require compensation for affected farmers.

"However, it needs to be clearly acknowledged that buying back water from farmers in southern NSW and northern Victoria will not solve issues in the Darling. Water buybacks in these areas might help the political expediency, which appears the priority of Water Minister Tanya Plibersek, but they will only lead to social and economic damage in these communities for virtually no environmental gain."

Mrs Scoullar said Australia was once renowned for its innovation and solving problems and this was the most important skill farmers possess.

She said open dialogue with farmers and growers would prove more than fruitful for those making decisions.