Basin Salinity Management Strategy 2001-2015

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Basin Salinity Management Strategy

The Basin Salinity Management Strategy (BSMS) guides communities and governments in working together to control salinity in the Murray-Darling Basin and protect key natural resource values within their catchments.

It establishes targets for the river salinity of each major tributary valley and the Murray-Darling system itself, that reflect the shared responsibility for action both between valley communities and between States.

A key feature of the fifteen-year Basin Salinity Management Strategy is the adoption by the Ministerial Council of end-of-valley salinity targets for each tributary catchment and a Basin target at Morgan in South Australia. The Basin target is to maintain the salinity at Morgan at less than 800 EC units for 95% of the time.

• maintaining the water quality of the shared water resources of the Murray and Darling Rivers;
• controlling the rise in salt loads in all tributary rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin;
• controlling land degradation and protecting important terrestrial ecosystems, productive farm land, cultural heritage and built infrastructure; and
• maximise net benefits from salinity control across the Basin.

It provides a stable and accountable framework that, over time, will generate confidence in how we are tracking our joint efforts to manage salinity.

Hard copies of the Strategy, Summary and fact sheets are available by contacting the MDBC.
For further information contact,
Murray-Darling Basin Commission
GPO Box 409
Canberra ACT 2601
02 6279 0100 or

ABARE Report  on Targeting land and water use option for Salinity Management in the Murray Darling Basin

For further information, contact the project manager