One row per household interviewed in the socio-economic household survey of the Gulu City household solid waste study, 23 to 26 September 2026: household characteristics, housing and utilities, income and expenditure bands, the types of waste generated, storage and disposal, the collection service, payment for collection, willingness to pay for an improved service and awareness of by-laws. The 424 households live in six areas of the two divisions of Gulu City. The table also holds the survey weight by division and the wealth index computed by the study team. At the authors' decision, the household coordinates (the consent did not cover locations) and the free text answers of the questionnaire are not published, and the enumerators are coded.

Usage

guluswm_survey

Format

A tibble with 424 rows and 46 variables

household_id: Identifier of the interviewed household as assigned by the study team: the enumerator code (E1 to E5, replacing the enumerator's initials used in the field), the survey date as day and month (2309 for 23 September 2026) and a running number per enumerator, for example E1-2309-001.
enumerator: Code of the enumerator who conducted the interview, E1 to E5; the codes replace the mWater user names and are shared with guluswm_waste.
survey_date: Date of the interview, between 23 and 26 September 2026.
area: Study area in which the household lives: Limo, Vanguard or Highland (Laroo-Pece Division), Kanyagoga, Pabbo Quarters or Goans Quarters (Bardege-Layibi Division). Only two interviews were completed in Highland. The raw file spells Pabbo Quarters as Pabwo Quarters in this sheet.
division: Administrative division of Gulu City in which the household lives: Bardege-Layibi or Laroo-Pece.
household_size: Number of people living in the household.
respondent_is_head: Whether the respondent is the head of the household (Yes or No).
education_head: Highest level of education of the household head, in rising order: None (no formal education), Primary, Secondary, Tertiary/vocational, University and above.
livelihood: Main source of livelihood of the household: Trading/business, Casual labour, Salaried employment, Remittances/Donations or Other.
income_band: Monthly household income in Ugandan shillings, in six bands from None/no regular income to Above UGX 1,000,000.
income_class: Income class derived from income_band: Low (no regular income or below UGX 300,000), Middle (UGX 300,000 to 600,000) or High (above UGX 600,000). The proportions of these classes set the cut points of wealth_index_class.
expenditure_band: Monthly household expenditure on basic needs in Ugandan shillings, in five bands from Below UGX 100,000 to Above UGX 1,000,000.
wall_material: Main material of the walls of the dwelling: Mud/wattle, Unburnt bricks, Burnt bricks, unplastered, Burnt bricks, plastered or Other.
roof_material: Main material of the roof of the dwelling: Grass thatch, Iron sheets (old/rusted), Iron sheets (new) or Tiles/permanent.
piped_water: Whether the household has access to piped water (Yes or No).
electricity: Whether the household has access to electricity (Yes or No).
waste_types: Types of waste the household generates, as named by the respondent: Food preparation waste, Food leftovers, Plastic, Paper, Glass or Other; several answers are separated by a semicolon.
disposal_container: Container in which the household stores its waste before disposal: Kavera (a polyethylene bag), Sack, Bucket or Bag; several answers are separated by a semicolon.
disposal_method: How the household disposes of its waste: Burning, Collected by service provider, Taken to collection point/skip, Backyard dumping, Rubbish pit, Roadside dumping, Open drain, Burying, Garden/compost or Other; several answers are separated by a semicolon.
waste_collector: Who collects the household's waste: City/Division Council, Private Operator, Informal Collector, Community Group, Self (household), No one or Other; asked of households with a collection arrangement.
preferred_frequency: Collection frequency the household would prefer: Daily, More than once a week, Three times a week, Twice a week, Weekly or Other; the answer Collection points every month was recorded under Other as an open answer.
preferred_time: Time of day the household considers best for collection: Morning, Day time, Evening, No specific time or Other.
service_reliable: Whether the household considers waste collection in its area reliable (Yes or No). The question was independent of waste_collector: some households whose waste is not collected take it to the municipal skips.
irregular_collection_problem: Main problem the household experiences from irregular collection: Dirty neighborhood, Unhealthy environment, Spread of diseases, Bad reputation of the area or Other; asked of households that call their service unreliable.
enough_collection_points: Whether the household considers the number of skips or collection points in its area enough (Yes or No).
distance_disposal_point: Distance from the household to the nearest disposal point, in bands: Less than 50 Metres, 50 - 100 Metres, 200 - 300 Metres or More than 500 Metres.
pays_for_collection: Whether the household pays for waste collection (Yes or No).
current_fee_band: Monthly fee the household pays for collection in Ugandan shillings, in five bands from Below UGX 1,000 to UGX 15,000 and above; asked of paying households.
current_fee_rating: How the household rates the fee it pays: Affordable, Manageable or Expensive; asked of paying households.
payment_channel: How the household pays for collection: Direct to City/Division Council, Through the landlord or Other. The question was shown to every household; for households that do not pay (pays_for_collection is No) the answer is not applicable, and for paying households Other covers channels not listed.
payment_schedule: How often the household pays for collection: Daily, Whenever collected, Bi-weekly or Monthly. The question was shown to every household; for households that do not pay (pays_for_collection is No) the answer is not applicable.
willing_to_pay: Whether the household is willing to pay for an improved and regular collection service, or to pay more than now if it pays already (Yes or No).
reason_willing: Main reason for being willing to pay: Desire for a cleaner environment, Reduced risk of disease, Convenience/saves time, Improves property value or Other.
reason_not_willing: Main reason for not being willing to pay: Income is too low/irregular, Government/City should bear the cost, Already pay enough / rent includes it, Current service is unreliable so won't pay more, or Other.
wtp_band: Monthly amount the household is willing to pay in Ugandan shillings, in five bands from Below UGX 1,000 to UGX 15,000 and above; asked of willing households.
preferred_payment_structure: Payment structure the household prefers: Flat monthly fee, Pay-per-visit/per-collection, Pay-per-bag/per-bin collected, Included in property rent/rates or No preference.
participates_cleanups: Whether the household takes part in community clean-up exercises (Yes or No).
ever_complained: Whether the household has ever complained about solid waste management (Yes or No).
complained_to: To whom the household complained: LCI Chairman (the chairperson of the Local Council I), Land Lord, City/Division Council, Private Operator or Other.
receives_swm_information: Whether the household receives information on solid waste management from the City (Yes or No).
aware_of_bylaws: Whether the household is aware of any solid waste management by-law (Yes or No).
swm_challenges: Challenges of solid waste management in the area, coded by the study team from the respondent's answer; several codes are separated by a semicolon.
improvement_themes: Improvements suggested by the respondent, coded by the study team from the free text answer; several codes are separated by a semicolon.
survey_weight: Post-stratification weight by division: the division's share of the population of Gulu City divided by its share of the sample. Bardege-Layibi 0.680 (population 93,848, sample 251) and Laroo-Pece 1.465 (population 139,423, sample 173), population figures from UBOS (2024).
wealth_index_score: Wealth index score computed by the study team: the first principal component of five standardised household indicators (roof of new iron sheets or tiles, plastered burnt brick walls, electricity, head with tertiary/vocational or university education, salaried employment as main livelihood); higher values mean wealthier. Missing for 18 households with a missing indicator.
wealth_index_class: Wealth class from wealth_index_score: households ranked by score and cut into Low, Middle and High in the proportions of income_class (63.4, 25.2 and 11.4 percent). Ties were ranked by their order in the raw file, so 33 households with the same score of 0.4246 are split between Low (4) and Middle (29). Missing for 18 households.

Source

Field data of Ivan Feni, Abubakar Batte, James Omal and Charles B. Niwagaba (Makerere University, University of Stuttgart and Gulu City Council), collected with the mWater platform from 23 to 26 September 2026, and shared with openwashdata as a workbook in October and November 2026. The fieldwork was funded by Integers Company Limited.

Examples

head(guluswm_survey)
#> # A tibble: 6 × 46
#>   household_id enumerator survey_date area  division   household_size
#>   <chr>        <chr>      <date>      <chr> <chr>               <int>
#> 1 E1-2309-001  E1         2026-09-23  Limo  Laroo-Pece              2
#> 2 E1-2309-002  E1         2026-09-23  Limo  Laroo-Pece              4
#> 3 E1-2309-003  E1         2026-09-23  Limo  Laroo-Pece              7
#> 4 E1-2309-004  E1         2026-09-23  Limo  Laroo-Pece              3
#> 5 E1-2309-005  E1         2026-09-23  Limo  Laroo-Pece              7
#> 6 E1-2309-006  E1         2026-09-23  Limo  Laroo-Pece              4
#> # ℹ 40 more variables: respondent_is_head <chr>, education_head <fct>,
#> #   livelihood <chr>, income_band <fct>, income_class <fct>,
#> #   expenditure_band <fct>, wall_material <chr>, roof_material <chr>,
#> #   piped_water <chr>, electricity <chr>, waste_types <chr>,
#> #   disposal_container <chr>, disposal_method <chr>, waste_collector <chr>,
#> #   preferred_frequency <chr>, preferred_time <chr>, service_reliable <chr>,
#> #   irregular_collection_problem <chr>, enough_collection_points <chr>, …
# households paying for collection, by area
table(guluswm_survey$area, guluswm_survey$pays_for_collection)
#>                 
#>                   No Yes
#>   Goans Quarters  25  35
#>   Highland         0   0
#>   Kanyagoga      111  21
#>   Limo           100   0
#>   Pabbo Quarters  27  26
#>   Vanguard        54   7

Household survey on solid waste management in Gulu City, Uganda, 2026

Usage

Format

Source

Examples