Lewis, Amy R.Bell, Andrew R.Casas, AnaKupiec-Teahan, BeataMendoza Sanchez, JoséWillcock, SimonAnciano, FionaBarrington, Dani J.Dube, MmeliHutchings, PaulKarani, CarolineLlaxacondor, ArturoLópez, HellenMdee, Anna L.Ofori, Alesia D.Riungu, Joy N.Russel, Kory C.Parker, Alison H.2024-06-272024-06-272024-06-26Lewis AR, Bell AR, Casas A, et al., (2024) Comparative sanitation data from high-frequency phone surveys across 3 countries. Data in Brief, Volume 55, August 2024, Article number 110635https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2024.110635https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/22572With less than half of the worldʼs urban population having safely managed sanitation due to the high cost and difficulty of building sewers and treatment plants, many rely on off-grid options like pit latrines and septic tanks, which are hard to empty and often lead to illegal waste dumping; this research focuses on container-based sanitation (CBS) as an emerging off-grid solution. Off-grid sanitation refers to waste management systems that operate independently of centralized infrastructure and CBS is a service providing toilets that collect human waste in sealable containers, which are regularly emptied and safely disposed of. These data relate to a project investigating CBS in Kenya, Peru, and South Africa, focusing on how different user groups access and utilize sanitation – contrasting CBS with other types. Participants, acting as citizen scientists, collected confidential data through a dedicated smartphone app designed by the authors and external contractors. This project aimed to explore the effective scaling, management, and regulation of off-grid sanitation systems, relevant to academics in urban planning, water and sanitation services, institutional capability, policy and governance, and those addressing inequality and poverty reduction. The 12-month data collection period offered participants small incentives for weekly engagement, in a micro payment for micro tasks approach. Participants were randomly selected, attended a training workshop, and (where needed) were given a smartphone which they could keep at the end of the project. We conducted weekly smartphone surveys in over 300 households across informal settlements. These surveys aimed to understand human-environment interactions by capturing daily life, wellbeing, income, infrastructural service use, and socioeconomic variables at a weekly resolution, contributing to more informed analyses and decision-making. The smartphone-based approach offers efficient, cost-effective, and flexible data collection, enabling extensive geographical coverage, broad subject areas, and frequent engagement. The Open Data Kit (ODK) tools were used to support data collection in the resource-constrained environment with limited or intermittent connectivity.en-UKAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/SanitationWater SupplyContainer-based SanitationOff-grid SanitationWASHSmartphone SurveyWellbeingPovertyComparative sanitation data from high-frequency phone surveys across 3 countriesArticle2352-3409