There's a sense something is not right among the farmers of the southern Murray-Darling Basin.

Key points:

    Anyone can buy and trade water in Australia, and 14 per cent of trades each year are by individuals or corporates that don't own land.

    The Federal Government has promised a competition study of Australia's $2-billion water trade
    Irrigators in the southern basin say the water market is having unintended consequences on their local economies and the river.

It is not just drought, they say, that is testing livelihoods. It is the system.

The Murray-Darling Basin's $2 billion water trade — introduced to recognise the value of the resource and provide farmers with greater flexibility — is shifting economies and changing the landscape.

At the request of the Federal Government, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is about to study the trade.

Some say what is happening across the southern basin is simply the result of free trade and the commodification of water.

Others describe it as a failed experiment.

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan makes it clear that the river is a national asset to be managed in the national interest.

But on a recent trip up the river, the ABC found a growing number who believe the unintended consequences of water trading are challenging that promise.