• OED
• Housing & Municipal
• Family & Youth Services
• Social Services
• Finance
• Corporate Services

Environmental Health

Dog Management Program

Tangentyere operates a comprehensive dog management program across Town Camp communities aiming to reduce and maintain an appropriate number of healthy dogs, and to improve the health of residents. The program aims to achieve this through the following strategies.

• Working in close collaboration with Alice Springs Town Council (ASTC) rangers, assisting them with their statutory responsibility for dog management across the Town Camp communities. This involves weekly rounds with ASTC rangers, assisting with catching unwanted dogs for removal.
• Engaging and working alongside a veterinarian for 2.5 days a week, carrying out fertility control, treatment for mange, internal parasites, fleas, ringworm and performing euthanasia. This programme also collects comprehensive statistics on dog numbers, health and treatments.

This program removes an average of between 300 and 400 unwanted dogs from Town Camp Communities per annum.

Pest Control Program

Tangentyere carries out a pest control program across Town Camp community housing, aiming to improve environmental health conditions by reducing infestations of cockroaches, mice, spiders and ants, and reducing access and prevalence of mosquitoes and flies. The program aims to achieve this by:

• engaging a licensed Pest Control company to complete bi-annual pest treatment to all houses, including treating inside and out for cockroaches, spiders and ants;
• reducing the prevalence of mosquito water breeding sites by providing soakage around yard taps, regular replacing of dripping yard taps, redirecting evaporative air-conditioning bleed-off water underground;
• reducing mosquito and fly access to houses by upgrading flyscreens;
• removing abandoned cars and places that become mosquito breeding sites.

Landcare Program

Tangentyere carries out a Landcare Program within the Town Camp Communities. The aims of this program are to:

1. Alleviate the impact of overcrowding thereby reducing the spread of infectious diseases, such as meningococcal disease, rheumatic fever, tuberculosis and respiratory infections;
2. Improving the temperature of living environments decreasing the likelihood of residents developing chest infections and pneumonia in winter, and assisting with prevention of dehydration in summer particularly for children with diarrhoeal disease;
3. Reducing dust in the living environment, which can irritate mucosal surfaces and the skin, contributing to eye diseases such as trachoma, respiratory disease and skin infections.

The project aims to assist with improvements in these three key areas by:

• Constructing stormwater retention banks within communities and within household yards aimed at redirecting stormwater runoff to pool and infiltrate into the ground providing water for vegetation. The vegetation will reduce dust, provide barriers for cold winter winds and provide shade in housing areas and public spaces;
• collecting and reusing excess water from household evaporative air conditioner units, reticulating this water underground to new tree planting. This project removes unwanted water from the surface (removing mosquito breeding opportunities) and ensures up to 10 shade and screen trees per house are well watered throughout the summer months. This water is also directed to vine planting to promote growth along yard fences creating effective wind and dust barriers;
• community tree planting in house yards and in community park areas provides cool comfortable places for families to sit, helping to alleviate overcrowding within houses.