NSW and Victoria should be targeted for water buybacks if they pull out of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, the South Australian government says.
Water Minister Ian Hunter said the commonwealth must ensure the delivery of environmental flows downstream if the two upstream states walk away from the agreement.
"South Australian irrigators should not be made to pay for the short-sighted and petulant response by NSW and Victoria to leave the basin plan," Mr Hunter said in a statement on Friday.
Mr Hunter said the commonwealth must move to secure delivery of the 2750 gigalitres that were agreed to under the plan.
"If they leave the plan, they should be the ones to give up water in a commonwealth buyback to support other states," Mr Hunter said.
NSW and Victoria both threatened to walk away from the plan earlier this week after the Senate blocked proposed changes to reduce the amount of water being returned to the environment in southern Queensland and northern NSW.
NSW Water Minister Niall Blair said on Thursday the current plan was "untenable" for the state's farming communities.
The Murray-Darling system takes in 23 rivers, supports more than four million people and stretches across South Australia, Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
