The Northern Land Council has thrown its support behind calls from the Traditional Owners of the Roper River catchment for the Northern Territory government to rewrite the "appalling" Draft Mataranka Water Allocation Plan.

The Land Council said the recently released Draft Plan is "blatantly disrespectful to the Traditional Owners who have been fighting for decades to protect the Roper River".

The NLC said the Territory government has "missed the opportunity to develop an integrated and holistic water plan that equitably shares available water, while protecting cultural and environmental values" of the Roper River system.

"Territorians are being presented with a plan that ignores the views of community, and puts the health of the springs at Mataranka and the Roper River at serious risk," the Land Council said in a joint statement on Monday.

NLC chair Matthew Ryan said: "Our waters are sacred, our Songlines follow the water, they are crucial to our people's way of life."

"This Plan jeopardises our Country and the future generations who will care for it," he said.

"The Ngalakgan, Alawa, Mangarrayi, Ngandi, Marra, Warndarrang, Nunggubuyu, Ritharrngu-Wagilak and Rembarrnga of the Roper are unified, they have been clear. They want a ban on all further water extraction, protection of environmental and Indigenous cultural values, and joint decision-making, including with the downstream communities.

"This Plan is yet another example of the NTG not properly consulting with Traditional Owners and affected Aboriginal people. Countless submissions, the cultural map, Statement – what will it take for them to listen?"

The Land Council said the Draft Plan does not provide adequate information or any appropriate safeguards for the Council to have confidence that the rights and interests of Traditional Owners and Aboriginal people in the region will be met.

The Council said the level of water extraction the Territory government is proposing through the draft plan is "excessive", and that the water licensing arrangements will not keep the springs, the river, nor its floodplains safe.

"The NLC has heard this message consistently from our constituents and cannot support the Plan in its current form," the Council, which made their case in their own submission to the government prior to the draft being published, said.

Mr Ryan said "we all know about the need to conserve water resources".

"Water is life for everyone... The government can't have such short-term thinking and unsustainable planning around water. They are not going to walk over our people on this; there must be meaningful consultation," he said.

The Northern Land Council noted that as a signatory to the National Water Initiative, the NT government is responsible for managing water sustainably, and that Territory law requires cultural and environmental values to be protected when allocating water for extraction.

"The draft plan fails on both counts; it does not protect cultural sites, nor areas of cultural use," the Council said.

"Development of the plan did not involve genuinely consulting with Traditional Owners, and the total volume of water earmarked for extraction has not been informed by best available science, socio-economic analysis, nor community input as is required by the National Water Initiative.

The NLC said the government has had "every opportunity" to effectively engage with Traditional Owners over the decade the plan has been in development, and that Minister for Water Kate Worden's Water Advisory Committee "regularly raised concerns about the current rate of extraction and the already visible impact on Country".

"These concerns were repeatedly ignored and those who spoke up were criticised. Failure to meaningfully engage with Traditional Owners led to the three Aboriginal members of the Minister's Committee resigning prior to drafting of the plan," the Council said.

The significance of the Roper River, its springs, and its floodplains are well-known.

In November last year Traditional Owner representatives travelled to Canberra and presented a 13 metre hand-painted map to Parliament. The associated statement signed by hundreds of community residents called for the Roper River system to be protected from threats.

"All our Songlines follow the water. We are all connected. If you take our water, you kill our culture. If you kill our culture, you kill our people," it reads.

The Land Council said on Monday that "the biggest threat currently posed to the Roper River system is the NT government itself", and its "archaic management and regulation of the most precious of resources – our water".

The National Indigenous Times has contacted Minister Worden for comment.