The draft, considered one of the Government's most important environmental documents of 2008, is due for release within days.

It will deal with the future of stressed rivers such as the Goulburn, Murray and Campaspe under climate change.

But The Age believes the document will not advocate one of northern Victoria's major infrastructure proposals — the building of a massive water channel from the Murray River near Yarrawonga to the Goulburn system near Shepparton.

It is officially named the Murray-Goulburn Interconnector but is widely known as the "Bunna Channel".

The plan would assist water trading by connecting two systems and bypassing the slow-flowing Barmah Forest section of the Murray River.

The Government this year completed a $3 million feasibility study into the project, which has been with Water Minister Tim Holding for at least four months.

The 50-year strategy to be released this month is believed to merely say that investigations into the channel are continuing.

The Age believes that authorities are considering a rival plan that would simply loop around the Barmah Forest and rejoin the Murray River.

The loop could be constructed on either the NSW or the Victorian side of the Murray.

The rival plan would be cheaper but would not encourage water trading between the upper Murray and Goulburn systems, something which remains a long-term goal of some policymakers.

Senior Government figures say they will never give up on the channel plan, which was estimated in 2007 to be capable of freeing up 1300 billion litres of water and was costed at more than $200 million.

Environmentalists have traditionally opposed the channel because they believe it could rob the Barmah Forest and nearby wetlands of water.

The 50-year strategy is not expected to guarantee minimum levels of environmental flows for the stressed northern rivers.

Instead it is likely to adopt a similar philosophy to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, which believes that Australians may not be able to preserve all environmental assets so must set priorities and focus on assets that can be saved.

The strategy does not advocate buybacks by the State Government, preferring to use local knowledge to help the Federal Government complete its $3 billion water buyback.

The strategy will also seek to highlight a practice in northern Victoria where communities have been buying water on the open market to use on town assets such as football ovals.