Minister for the Murray, Karlene Maywald, said inflow conditions had significantly deteriorated since the end of December last year because of well below average rainfall combined with above average temperatures.

"In February 2009, only 50 gigalitres of inflows were received to the Basin which is below the previous record low of 60GL in February 2007," Mrs Maywald said.

"During the past two months, no Basin State has received any improvements in the amount of water it can allocate from the River Murray shared resource, and it is highly likely that inflows will be around minimum levels during March 2009.

"Future improvements will be limited because of the extremely dry conditions currently being experienced across the Upper Murray system."

Mrs Maywald said the Hume, Dartmouth, Lake Victoria and Menindee Lakes storages were currently at 16pc capacity (1493 GL) compared to the same time last year at 21pc (1947 GL) and the long-term average for this time of year of 57pc (5300 GL).

"The water level at Lake Alexandrina (at Milang) is currently minus 1.01m AHD, and at Lake Albert is currently minus 0.54m AHD," she said.

However, she said South Australia was on track to secure the required water for critical human needs in 2009-10.

However, there remained a chance that a small amount of water may need to be purchased if there were no improvements in the amount of water available to SA before the end of 2008-09.