Justin Scarr’s call comes less than a week after a drunk, unconscious woman was pulled to safety from the Murray River at Noreuil Park having become entangled in a tree.

"Although it sounds un-Australian, the strong link between drinking and drowning while swimming or supervising children around water may call for such measures (as breath testing)," Mr Scarr said after seven drowning deaths in NSW in the past few days.

Corowa volunteer rescue diver Peter Wright's team has pulled the bodies of close to 50 people who have drowned out of the Murray River near Albury – the worst black spot for drownings in the most dangerous river in Australia – in the past 37 years. Many had been drinking.

More than 40 per cent of the 770 people who drowned in Australia's inland waterways in the past 10 years had been drinking, finds new research confirming the strong link between alcohol, drownings and reckless behaviour in the water.

Of those adults who had been drinking and subsequently drowned, 70 per cent would have failed a random breath test on the roads, says the paper to be published in January's edition of Accident Analysis and Prevention.

About 40 per cent of adults who had been drinking before they drowned had a blood alcohol reading of more than 0.20, four times the legal limit. Another nine per cent had drunk 0.10 to 0.19, and four per cent registered 0.05 to 0.09, said the report. Nearly 83 per cent were male.

Mr Wright, 62, is the longest serving and medically certified rescue diver in the NSW Volunteer Rescue Association and he says the main reason people die or struggle in the water is because they panic, something that's more likely to occur if they have been drinking.

"Alcohol with water is extremely hazardous, whether you are boating or swimming. You get no second chances. If you are in the river, and you have had a bellyful of alcohol and you get into trouble, the chances are you will drown. And alcohol and the river, they just don't mix," he said.

"Alcohol is a major contributing factor. If you have been drinking, and you get into trouble, you will drown. If you are a poor swimmer, and you get into trouble in the river, you will drown. It is the avoidable nature of these that is the frustrating thing.”

Albury and Border Rescue Squad deputy-captain Paul Marshall has raised the possibility of making popular waterfront areas permanent alcohol-free zones.

“People forget that when you’re out on the banks in the heat, what you think are just a couple of beers goes through your system twice as quickly,” he said.

“One of the first steps might be to turn some of the foreshores into alcohol-free zones.

“It would help prevent people entering the water while intoxicated, and would also come with the bonus of having less rubbish left lying around.

“It certainly wouldn't hurt to provide voluntary breath-testing facilities if they don't choose to ban alcohol in popular swimming areas.

“The bottom line though, is that people have to take responsibility for their actions.

“When our volunteers have to attend a drowning, see the family in the knowledge that it was truly preventable, it makes the job that much harder.”