‘‘Urgent action is needed to improve water reliability in the NSW Murray region.’’

That was the key message delivered to state Minister for Primary Industries and Minister for Regional Water Niall Blair last week.

Mr Blair and member for Murray Austin Evans met with representatives of the Speak Up Campaign during a visit to Griffith.

He was given further details of a proposed Water Security Fund, including the need for an immediate feasibility study and a commitment from the Coalition to provide significant funding from the Snowy Hydro sale.

Meeting with Mr Blair were Speak Up chair Shelley Scoullar and deputy chair Lachlan Marshall.

“People and stressed and concerned with the present situation, and we need urgent action. From a political perspective, we highlighted to Mr Blair that solutions need to be announced before next month’s state election to give our region confidence that politicians are listening and are prepared to help,” Mrs Scoullar said.

Mr Marshall added they also spoke to Mr Blair about the present situation in the Darling River and Menindee Lakes, which have generated national media coverage.

“Historically 39 per cent of South Australian entitlement flows come from the Darling and Menindee, but under the current Murray-Darling agreement New South Wales and Victoria share the responsibility for meeting all SA entitlement flows.

“Once Menindee is offline it then becomes the responsibility of the Murray River to meet the shortfall. We suggested to Mr Blair that if Menindee is offline, SA should not get 100 per cent of its entitlement flows. Given they have excess flows and are currently selling entitlements back to NSW and Victoria, this should not be a problem,” Mr Marshall said.

He added Mr Blair accepted this position and raised it twice during a public forum later that evening.

Mrs Scoullar said they also asked Mr Blair about the findings of an audit into unintended operational losses in the Murray system during the 2018 spring.

“While farmers are on zero allocation we have seen an estimated 300 gigalitres wasted through losses which we believe were the result of poor river management. Mr Blair assured us this was being followed up, but the state was still waiting for the Commonwealth to provide data.

“It is a huge worry if the Commonwealth cannot quickly account for losses of more than 300 gigalitres,” she said.

The Speak Up representatives said they are hoping to get further information on the Government’s commitment to the feasibility study and Water Fund in coming weeks.

“The Deputy Premier John Barilaro gave this solution a positive response when he was in Deniliquin last October, but we have not heard anything since. We are hoping for some commitments during the election campaign,” Mrs Scoullar and Mr Marshall said.