The NSW government is being primed to help rescue the Murray-Darling Basin, but the Office of Water has set out plans to cut jobs.

The NSW Office of Water has called for voluntary redundancies in Parramatta, Penrith, the city and Wolli Creek, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

A memo from Commissioner for Water David Harriss explains the call for redundancies is done in view of a need for cost savings in preparation for a reduced budget allocation for 2012.

The memo further says the government's plans to decentralise public services would also result in the transfer of workers from metropolitan to regional areas. The NSW Public Service Association industrial officer, Geo Papas, said no new jobs had been announced in regional areas; and the city jobs were critical for supporting water management in regional areas.

Papas, however, notes decentralisation is not the primary reason for cutting jobs. As it is, only about 200 of 700 jobs are Sydney-based but these jobs play a critical function in supporting regional water management by providing many of the high-level science, policy and planning functions.

Papas said the employees targeted were highly skilled scientists, planners and policy experts. ''Employees are actively working with farmers to implement the Murray-Darling Basin plan and assessing the impact on water supplies of the state's growing coal seam gas industry,'' he told the Herald.