SOUTH Australia may produce great wine, citrus and seafood but its water policies are turning sour.

We've seen the South Australian Government procrastinate for years on eliminating the massive evaporation losses from its Lower Murray Lakes.

These losses are raising the lakes' salinity levels and threaten Adelaide's drinking water supplies.

We've seen South Australian Premier Mike Rann thumping the table demanding Victoria and NSW pour precious water into the lakes, which are currently no more than artificial ponds.

Yet no one who truly cares about the Murray Darling Basin and its communities could ever justify such waste in the midst of the worst drought on record.

We've even seen South Australia's colourful Senator Nick Xenophon calling for water to be released from the Darling River's Menindee Lakes to rescue thee Lower Lakes.

Yet Menindee water is being held as a contingency reserve to secure Adelaide's supplies in 2009-10.

Given the lack of logic in much of the South Australian water debate, it was not surprising to see Premier Mike Rann launch yet another rescue plan that failed to satisfy even his own irrigators.

The critical water needs package was flawed from the start.

Mr Rann talked about the Government buying water to underpin irrigator allocations "in the event water availability does not improve by June, 2009", by which time most permanent plantings would be dead.

When The Weekly Times, South Australian irrigators and water brokers asked for details on the package, we hit a brick wall.

There was nothing, no detail. "Just leave your name and phone number and we'll get back to you," was the response from South Australian Government officials.

The whole idea of the South Australian Government bidding against Victorian and NSW irrigators for water on the temporary market is, as the VFF put it, "absurd".

Surely it makes far more sense to deliver financial aid direct to all irrigators, which then allows them to make decisions on how best to use it.

The Federal Government's $20,000 cash grant is a great example. It gave irrigators in all states access to assistance they could use to boost on-farm water use efficiency, cover water costs or buy feed.

It must be remembered that in the eyes of the law and the water market, irrigators, whether they water grass or grapevines, have the same rights to water.

Walking into the temporary water market with a fist full of taxpayers' dollars is not a solution, just a recipe for inequity and disaster.