URBAN green groups' use of "click here" campaigning in the Murray-Darling Basin debate should be condemned.

Using such tactics to make submissions on the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's proposed basin plan trivialises the impact it would have on the region's 2.2 million people.

It is astounding that almost half the 3105 submissions received by the authority were generated by environmental group campaigns containing identical text.

Most submissions called on the authority to drain more than 4000 gigalitres out of the basin's communities.

It is easy for tech-savvy environmental campaigners to email out pro-forma letters to be submitted to the authority. In reality, many green groups have small active memberships.

Groups use pro-forma campaigns to create the illusion of widespread community support of their view.

So it was heartening to see the MDBA step in and burst the bubble of inflated green submissions last week - by separating pro-forma letters and emails from the real thing.

Irrigators, the businesses that rely on them and wider basin community made the effort of preparing their submissions.

Nothing stirs people into action more than a threat - in this case, to their communities' survival.

Let's hope the MDBA now takes its time assessing submissions and develops a decent plan.

It's becoming clear, however, that the authority has struggled to develop a plan that is compliant with a flawed Water Act 2007.

Politicians on both sides of federal Parliament seem unwilling to bite the bullet and amend an Act that the Government's solicitor and a raft of the best legal minds say gives the environment primacy over social and economic issues.

Water Minister Tony Burke and the MDBA keep stating the Act allows them to develop a plan giving equal weight to environmental, social and economic issues.

But Mr Burke risks leading the basin community into developing a basin plan that will simply be torn to pieces in the High Court.

The basin community would demand Mr Burke's political scalp if it discovers two years of uncertainty and consultation have achieved nothing.