Corporations will soon face fines of up to $2.2 million for water theft from the Murray.

The South Australian Government is increasing the penalties for water theft.

Fines of $700,000 for individuals will be 20 times higher than before and the fine for corporations jumps from a current maximum of $70,000.

SA Environment Minister Jay Weatherill says the penalties will be the nation's toughest.

He says the SA Government will push for a national standard at the next Council of Australian Governments meeting.

"South Australia is being unreasonably depleted by the behaviour of the upstream states," he said.

"We take 7 per cent of the waters of the River Murray, 93 per cent of it disappears upstream and that's exacerbated by water theft that we're receiving reports about in the upstream states.

"We want to send this very clear message, not only to our water users in South Australia but any water users of the rivers of this nation."