NSW demands deal on stalled river plan The Murray-Darling Basin generates as much as 40 per cent of Australia's agricultural income. A deal between the Commonwealth and states over how to implement the historic plan to save the Murray-Darling Basin has stalled. The largest roadblock is the NSW government's insistence that the Commonwealth commit funding to water recovery infrastructure projects worth hundreds of million of dollars before it signs an intergovernmental agreement on putting in place the basin plan. The delay has prompted a broadside from Victorian Water Minister Peter Walsh. "We just want the momentum ... to return": Victorian Water Minister Peter Walsh. Photo: Leanne Pickett A post-Christmas lull is one thing but the time for summer holidays is well and truly over. Mr Walsh said the basin plan represented significant changes for Victorian communities and he was keen to see the negotiations advance to where ministers can sign a deal. Make no mistake, Victoria remains committed to the process. The basin plan orders that 2750 billion litres of water a year be recovered for the environment by 2019, which will occur through $10 billion in buybacks of farmer's water rights and water-saving infrastructure projects. The government has also agreed to separately recover an extra 450 billion litres a year by 2024 through $1.7 billion in efficiency works on farms. In a letter to Prime Minister Julia Gillard last month - seen by Fairfax Media - NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said his government was concerned that without funding for NSW water-saving infrastructure projects communities would be "decimated" by buybacks of water rights to meet the basin plan targets. Earlier this year the NSW government capped the amount of water licences that can be bought back in each valley to 3 per cent per decade. It has also has submitted for funding two major projects to the federal water department - $150 million infrastructure improvements at the Menindee Lakes, and a $185 million land and water purchase deal in the Nimmie-Caira district in south-west NSW - and is investigating another eight. Federal Water Minister Tony Burke sought to play down the stalled intergovernmental agreement process. The [basin] plan itself doesn't hinge on the agreement. Some states are quite close to being ready to sign as I understand it, NSW will take some time," he said.