"Funding assigned for infrastructure along the river is not going to put water back into the system for a long time, if ever," he said.

"The designs for a lot of that infrastructure allows us to keep running the system the way we are now, which is not good."

At the COAG meeting, an Intergovernmental Agreement between all Murray Darling Basin states and the Commonwealth was signed, giving control of the river to an independent governing body - the Murray Darling Basin Authority - and flagged more than $3 billion in infrastructure works along the entire length of the River Murray.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann was successful in securing $610 million for water projects, which could result in water savings of more than 100 gigalitres in the MDB system, which includes $120m for a pipeline network from Tailem Bend to Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert.

The State Government believes this will supply better quality water to the Lower Lakes region within two years.

* Extract from a full report in Stock Journal, SA, July 10 issue.