Local residents have been recruited to help their communities communicate their water-related needs.

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder has appointed six local engagement officers to work with rural communities across the Murray-Darling.

The appointments are in response to criticism from irrigators, who say the Water Holder does not have a proper appreciation of the issues they face.

The six local engagement officers will be expected to work both ways; sharing information with farmers and relaying their concerns back to government authorities.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Simon Birmingham, says the dream team of community engagement includes; “a floodplain ecologist, a biologist, a zoologist, a cattle and olive producer who's taught science, a former general manager of a catchment management authority and people who've worked in rural finance”.

The six local engagement officers will take up their posts during September and October, based at Deniliquin, Leeton and Dubbo in New South Wales, Mildura in Victoria, Berri in South Australia and Goondiwindi in Queensland.