The government is criticised for not completing the buyback this year, exposing irrigators to a rapid increase in temporary and permanent water prices, and for spending too much on buying instead of investment.

There is further criticism concerning the absence of advice from government on what it considers to be a 'fair' market price, the consequences for irrigators who choose not to sell and the effect of the buyback on communities.

While the buyback process calls for grapegrowers and other irrigators to express an interest by submitting a tender to the Department of Environment and Water Resources' water purchasing office, there is no public advice about the tender periods.

The first tender period began in February and ended on May 16, and industry sources understand the government has accepted those asking for 'something over $2000 a megalitre'.

The figure is about half the payment that grower organisations expected members to ask for and industry sources say Climate Change and Water Minister Penny Wong has been told that Riverland and Murray Valley irrigators expect better offers if government is serious about the buyback.

South Australian Murray Irrigators chairman Tim Whetstone says communities throughout the Murray Darling Basin will be consigned to bankruptcy if the Federal Government persists in rolling out its water buyback plan over 10 years, with a catastrophic impact on prices in SA.

"Our communities simply will not survive if the government stays in the water market, artificially inflating prices for a decade," he said.

"The buyback needs to happen this year and the CSIRO has all the necessary data to identify what streams are over-allocated and where the buyback will be most beneficial to the environment."

* Extract from a full report in the June edition of GrapeGrowers & Vignerons magazine.