States urged to adopt independent water commissioners

South Australian River Murray Minister Karlene Maywald is urging state governments to follow SA's lead in appointing independent commissioners for water issues.

It follows Friday's Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council meeting in Sydney where politicians discussed how to return 500 gigalitres to the system by 2009.

Mrs Maywald says the council's pace of progress in dealing with major issues is still too slow, and she is urging it to take action in areas such as governance.

"At the moment ... the commission is made up of, apart from one independent commissioner from South Australia, heads of government departments and therefore the progress has become very slow in implementing decisions with council because it often gets tied up in jurisdictional battles rather than what's in the best interests of the basin," she said.