FEDERAL Water Minister Penny Wong can't say whether her government's plan for the Murray-Darling will save the nation's biggest river system.
But she says it's the Murray-Darling's best chance of survival.
Ten months after coming to power, with tensions rising as water reserves dwindle, Senator Wong reflected on the progress of the government's rescue mission.
The plan includes a federal government takeover of the Murray-Darling Basin and billions of dollars to buy out farmers' water rights.
"This isn't an easy task," Senator Wong told reporters by the side of the Murrumbidgee River near Canberra.
"We don't underestimate the scale of the task, historically and currently."
"But we absolutely believe that this is the plan that gives the Murray-Darling the best chance, in an era of climate change and drought."
The Murray-Darling system stretches through Queensland, NSW and Victoria before reaching the sea near Adelaide.
Most of the country's irrigated agriculture is located in the basin, which is suffering through a protracted drought and warmer-than-usual temperatures.
Asked if the government's plan would save the Murray-Darling, Senator Wong would only say it gave the basin the best chance of survival.
She listed as a success the fact that state governments had agreed to hand over their water powers to the federal government, so the basin could be managed as a whole.
And, for the first time, the government was buying water on the market to be returned to the environment.
Other measures included paying farmers a bonus to sell their water licences and buying out large irrigation properties like Toorale in western NSW, she said.
But the senator was under no illusions about these remedial steps having dramatic results.
"I recognise, the government understands, that they're being progressed at a time when it is very difficult because of the historic low inflows," she said.
Senator Wong was at Casuarina Sands near Canberra to announce an outlay of $6 million for extra staff to speed up the computer modelling of water resources across the basin.
The money will go to the eWater Cooperative Research Centre to develop a new computer model which is hoped to be ready by 2011.
AAP
