Children playing on grassy areas and rugby players using local sports facilities are said to be at risk of going blind due to careless dog-owners creating what the local community association bills a "filthy, dangerous mess".
The problem of dog-fouling has been described as "absolutely outrageous" by concerned local man, and member of the Drumahoe Community Association (DCA) David Burke.
He has labelled one section of footpath near a local school as a "battlefield" - such is the dog debris perennially strewn across it.
Mr Burke is particularly concerned for the health of local children playing in the area. He points to the well-documented dirt-borne parasite toxocara canis, which can cause blindness in children if they become infected.
At least two young people in Londonderry are known to have lost the sight of an eye due to this disease.
"It's a major problem. The area between the local Primary School and the bridge is particularly bad," said Mr Burke.
"It's absolutely outrageous. I walked up there this morning and it was like a battlefield. I see children playing on the grass verge in the village during the summer. Doing handstands. If you saw the amount of dog dirt around there."
But whilst the problem has been tirelessly raised in the community association newsletter, the situation is getting worse rather than better.
Mr Burke said the extent of the problem was brought home to him recently when he attended a sermon in a local Church.
The sermon touched on both the sacred and the profane when the Minister - preaching on the importance of choosing the correct spiritual footsteps in life - was forced to remark how he had to tread a careful physical path on his way to Church due to the dog mess.
Mr Burke laid the blame at the door of negligent dog-owners living in the Drumahoe area.
"We can't say it is anybody else. It's being caused by people walking their dogs who live in the area," said Mr Burke.
YMCA chief Willie Lamrock said the problem is endemic. Nasty fouls of a particularly unsporting nature are a continuing blight at the playing fields at the club.
"We had a rugby game there and we wouldn't allow the game to start until our groundsman had gone around with a shovel and removed the dirt from the pitch," said Mr Lamrock.
"On occasions we've had senior rugby players walking off the pitch with dirt on their ears and on their hair."
Mr Lamrock said people from outside the area are contributing to the problem alongside local dog-owners.
"I see cars driving into the car park here at the YMCA. And they are letting their dogs run free all over the place," he stated.
Whist fixed penalties of up to £50 and court-imposed fines of up to £500 can be imposed on errant dog-owners both Mr Burke and Mr Lamrock agreed that instilling a sense of civic responsibility amongst pet owners was as important as enforcement.
"The law is there but there is only so much that the Council can do," said Mr Burke. "I'm not a dog-owner myself but I walk my daughter's dog when she brings it over. They have paper bags and the Council have put up bins. It doesn't take very much to pick up after your dog."
Mr Lamrock said it is a case of personal standards suggesting some dog-owners do not seem to care about the mess they were leaving in their wake.
"It's a question of the personal standards people keep in their lives," he said. "Are they going to allow their dogs to foul? Are you going to throw litter around you?
"In a way some of the people who are doing this are setting an example for others who ask: 'if everyone else is doing it why should I pick up after me?' People need to set an example."