Faecal sludge characterisation dataset and analysis code, Parakou faecal sludge treatment plant, Benin (n=14)

This deposit contains the complete dataset and analysis code underlying a physicochemical characterisation of faecal sludge (boues de vidange, BV) at the faecal sludge treatment plant (STEP) of Parakou, Benin. It supports a manuscript currently in preparation.

The dataset comprises 14 faecal sludge samples (BV 1_1 to BV 9), collected over two sampling weeks, each characterised by 22 physicochemical parameters spanning sample identification, general physicochemistry (pH, electrical conductivity, temperature, redox potential, total dissolved solids, salinity, dissolved oxygen and saturation), organic load (suspended solids, COD, BOD5 and the COD/BOD5 ratio), nitrogen and phosphorus speciation (nitrate, ammonium, nitrite, orthophosphate), total nutrients (total nitrogen and total phosphorus), and heavy metals (lead and zinc, on a dry-matter basis).

The data were assembled and quality-controlled from two complementary source datasets collected at the same plant, following a documented cross-validation procedure. Four corrections were applied and no observations were excluded: total dissolved solids for two samples were converted from g/L to mg/L after conductivity cross-checking; total nitrogen for two samples was set to the sum of measured inorganic fractions as a conservative lower bound where measured values were physically inconsistent; lead and zinc were retained from the validated source after a row-shifted corrupted duplicate was removed; and cadmium was excluded as non-detectable across all samples. Borderline values that were retained without modification are documented. Missing values are coded as NA (maximum missingness: ammonium, 3 of 14 entries).

Files included:

• BV_Parakou_n14.csv: the analysis-ready dataset (14 rows by 23 columns, UTF-8, header on line 1).
• BV_Base_FINALE_n14_complete.xlsx: the complete working file, including descriptive statistics, a full log of every correction and methodological decision, and ready-to-adapt Materials and Methods text.
• Parakou_Analysis_Complete.R: a self-contained R pipeline reproducing all figures and result tables from the CSV (descriptive statistics, pollution indices, stoichiometry, Spearman correlations with bootstrap confidence intervals, PCA and hierarchical clustering, ecological risk indices, and non-parametric tests).
• README.txt: full documentation, including a variable dictionary for all 23 columns.
• LICENSE: MIT licence text for the code.

Licensing: data and documentation are released under CC BY 4.0; the R analysis code (Parakou_Analysis_Complete.R) is released under the MIT License (see the LICENSE file).