With the dredging contract due to expire in June 2010, the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council agreed to continue the Murray Mouth Sand Pumping Project.

The Murray Mouth is in danger of closing while flow conditions in the River Murray remain low.

A continual increase of sand build up from low flow levels threatens to close the Mouth and it reached a critical level in mid-2002 following the closure of the barrages.

Since then, the sand pumping project has forced the Mouth open by creating channels from the Mouth to the Coorong.

The project was originally planned to keep the Mouth open over the 2002/2003 summer, but was extended due to dry conditions.

Now likely to continue into 2014, a contract for the sand dredging will be offered through a competitive tender process before June next year.