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Open data for water, sanitation and hygiene

openwashdata is an active global community that applies the FAIR principles to data from the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector, and teaches the skills to do it.

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50
published data packages
11
countries and regions
4
years of publishing, since 2023

Dataset of the month

solidwastekampala holds the quantity and composition of domestic solid waste from 103 households in Kampala, Uganda, weighed over one week in three parishes of low, middle and high income by researchers at Makerere University. Waste per person rises with income, from 0.43 kg per day on average in the low income parish to 0.98 in the high income parish, and food makes up three quarters of the mass.

Open solidwastekampala

Waste per person rises with income

One dot per household: kg of waste per person per day, with the median of each income level. Hover over a dot to see that household.

households = transpose(households_data)
medians = transpose(medians_data)

// width of the chart column, so the text keeps its size on every screen
chartWidth = Generators.observe((notify) => {
  const el = document.querySelector(".owd-dotm-chart");
  const report = () => notify(Math.max(280, el.clientWidth));
  const observer = new ResizeObserver(report);
  observer.observe(el);
  report();
  return () => observer.disconnect();
})

// chart-1 and chart-2 from openwashdata/brand
palette = ["#8a3a8a", "#b04208"]

Plot.plot({
  width: chartWidth,
  height: 310,
  marginLeft: 10,
  marginRight: 10,
  marginTop: 6,
  marginBottom: 40,
  style: {fontFamily: "Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, sans-serif", fontSize: 13, background: "transparent"},
  ariaLabel: "Dot plot of waste per person per day for 103 households in Kampala, one row per income level",
  ariaDescription: "The median rises from 0.32 kg in the low income parish to 0.57 in the middle income parish and 0.93 in the high income parish. Households spread from near zero to about 1.9 kg.",
  fy: {domain: label_order, axis: null, padding: 0.25},
  x: {label: "kg of waste per person per day", labelAnchor: "center", domain: [0, 2], grid: true, ticks: 5},
  marks: [
    Plot.dot(households, Plot.dodgeY("middle", {
      fy: "label",
      x: "per_capita",
      r: 3.6,
      fill: palette[0],
      fillOpacity: 0.75,
      stroke: "#ffffff",
      strokeWidth: 0.6,
      tip: true,
      title: (d) => `${d.household}\n${d.per_capita} kg per person per day\n${d.occupants} people, ${d.per_day} kg per day\n${d.label} (${d.parish})`
    })),
    Plot.ruleX(medians, {fy: "label", x: "median", stroke: palette[1], strokeWidth: 2}),
    Plot.text(medians, {
      fy: "label",
      x: "median",
      text: (d) => `median ${d.median} kg`,
      frameAnchor: "bottom",
      textAnchor: "start",
      dx: 5,
      dy: -1,
      fill: palette[1],
      fontWeight: 600
    }),
    // row titles last, with a halo so the median line does not cut through them
    Plot.text(medians, {
      fy: "label",
      text: (d) => `${d.label} (${d.parish}), ${d.n} households`,
      frameAnchor: "top-left",
      dx: 2,
      dy: -2,
      fontWeight: 700,
      fill: "#1e1e1e",
      stroke: "#f4f4f4",
      strokeWidth: 5
    })
  ]
})

Learn

Data Science for openwashdata (ds4owd), our free online course, teaches WASH professionals data science in R. Two cohorts have graduated so far. A third cohort will start in September 2027. We are currently preparing the sign-up forms for the third iteration. In the meantime, you can browse the course website of the second cohort from 2025.

Course website of the 2025 cohort Projects of the 2026 graduates About the course

Read

Stories, tutorials and opinions from and for the community.

Beyond publishing data: what we learned building an open science culture at BASEflow Malawi

Aug 18, 2026
Emmanuel Mhango

I thought my job was about data. It turned out to be about people.

Aug 11, 2026
Emmanuel Mhango

From course project to published dataset and paper: a collaboration with Kelsey Shaw

Jun 22, 2026
Lars Schöbitz
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Supported by the Open Research Data Program of the ETH Board and Global Health Engineering, ETH Zurich

 
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