Housing Related Infrastructure and Municipal and Essential Services Upgrading housing related community infrastructure and municipal and essential services has been an important part of the NPARIH capital works program. As new homes are built or additional bedrooms are added to existing houses, there can be a consequent increased load on local infrastructure such as sewerage and power. Upgrading infrastructure is a key enabler for the effective delivery of safe homes in remote Indigenous communities. While the NPARIH funding model included an amount of funding for ‘within the gate infrastructure’ such as site preparation, it did not include funding for replacement of major community head works infrastructure. Under the NPARIH, a National Audit of Municipal and Essential Services was undertaken during 2009-10 to assess the levels of outstanding need for infrastructure in remote Indigenous communities. The National Audit involved site visits to 86 remote Indigenous communities and 14 non-Indigenous communities of comparable size and location. It also started the process of clarifying the roles and responsibilities with respect to municipal services and ongoing maintenance of infrastructure and essential services in remote areas. The National Audit confirmed that the level of infrastructure and essential services in remote Indigenous communities does not meet the standard generally available in non-Indigenous communities of a similar size and location, and that services are consistently unreliable and suffer major disruptions. The National Audit found differences in existing standards across communities and towns where NPARIH housing is being delivered. Where these locations have access to normalised service arrangements, they generally tend to have a higher standard of provision and maintenance of municipal and essential services. Frequently, this means the provision of power is the most reliable and highest performing service, as it is often delivered by a mainstream power provider. The National Audit found services such as water, waste and environmental health more generally perform less well. Funding made available under NPARIH has resulted in significant upgrading of infrastructure and essential services in a number of locations. Where new housing subdivisions have been developed, necessary support infrastructure and services have been put in place. In larger RSD communities, this has involved major upgrades such as water storage facilities, sewer ponds, underground pipes and roads t...
