FEDERAL Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has seen first hand the problems at the lower reaches of the River Murray.

Mr Abbott today toured areas of the river near Murray Bridge in South Australia and said he was alarmed by what he saw.

"It's important that I familiarise myself with the real, practical problems here in the lower Murray," he said.

"Obviously, the dramatic decline in water levels in the lower reaches of the river is disastrous for local people.

"It's a big problem for local tourist operators, it's a very practical problem for the people living on the banks who are now suffering, as we see, from serious erosion problems.

"Plainly there has been a catastrophic fall in river level, just three years ago the river was one-and-a-half metres higher."

Mr Abbott reiterated a coalition government would ask Murray Darling Basin states to refer their powers to the commonwealth on river management.

"We had in 2007 a perfectly sound plan for national management of the Murray Darling Basin," he said.

"(Prime Minister) Kevin Rudd said he supported that plan but there has been no serious action to implement that plan over the last two years.

"Sure, drought is contributing to the problem but we also know that over allocation of water upstream is contributing to the problem.

"The Murray Darling Basin is too important to be left to the states to manage, you can't have parochial management of a river system extending across four states."

He said a coalition government would invite states to refer their powers to the commonwealth regarding management of the system.

"If, within 18 months, that hasn't been achieved, there will be a referendum at the subsequent election to give the commonwealth effective control of water management in the basin," he said.