Science must remain the driving force behind any plan to improve management of water in the Murray-Darling Basin, South Australian MPs have been told.
Environmental engineer Tim Stubbs, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, briefed SA MPs and government officials on Tuesday about the group's concerns about planning for the future of the basin.
Mr Stubbs said decisions on the amount of water to be returned to the Murray as environmental flows should bebased initially on the best peer-reviewed science available.
He said science had demonstrated that 3800 to 4000 gigalitres was the minimum amount required.
But Mr Stubbs said the Wentworth Group now feared a lower amount of 2800 gigalitres would be proposed, and that concern had prompted the group to stop working with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.
He said the lower amount seemed to be based more on political considerations centred on protection for irrigators.
"We recognise irrigation is critical to our long-term future," Mr Stubbs said.
"But we need irrigation that is sustainable."
Flinders University professor of social work, Chris Miller, told MPs change was inevitable for many river communities.
"Some small communities can only have a future by building an economy much less dependent on water," he said.
Prof Miller said quite apart from changes to water policy, the irrigation industry was already facing major issues including an ageing workforce, decreasing levels of profitability, high levels of debt and rising suicide rates among farmers.
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