BUILD it and they will come.

Or so a Canberra engineer reckons with his scheme to solve one of Australia's biggest environmental problems - the Murray Darling Basin.

Steve Briggs said a second Snowy Mountains Scheme-type project would replace the need for the Basin Plan's clawback of water from farmers to "save" the river.

Mr Briggs outlined his controversial ideas in a meeting with Riverina parliamentarians, irrigators and media in Deniliquin yesterday.

His idea is to virtually duplicate the existing Snowy scheme with seven new dams, 5000 megawatts of hydro-power generation and even a desalination plant.

The entire project would take about 25 years to build and cost $16-$20 billion.

Mr Briggs has designed major projects for water authorities in Australia and overseas.

"I am 100 per cent convinced there is no other alternative but to create more storages," he said.

Mr Briggs said there were enough surplus flows to the same headwaters which supplied the Snowy Mountains Scheme to give the Murray the increased storage.