Objectives To understand and master the status quo of rural sanitation in Chongqing and provide the basis for government departments to formulate plans and policies to improve rural sanitation.

Methods A total of 200 villages and 1 000 families were selected to conduct environmental sanitation field surveys in 10 selected counties by random sampling. The survey was collected through access to information, on-site interviews, household surveys and laboratory tests.

Results Among the 200 villages, the centralized water supplies covered 60.5% of the population, the treatment processes mainly consisted of the complete treatment process, 33.0% incinerated domestic waste, 35.5% did not carry out the eliminating the "four pests" work. Of the 1 000 households surveyed, 48.10% were mainly use of fuel wood, 13.1% discarded domestic waste and 22.9% discharged domestic sewage at will, 78.0% used sanitary toilets, and 54.1% investigated households surrounded with vector organisms breeding places. The qualified rate in soil was 97.0%, the pass rate of cadmium was 82.0%, and the detection rate of ascaris eggs was 21.5%.

Conclusions The use of centralized water suppies and clean energy needs to be improved. The problem of disposal of domestic garbage and domestic sewage discharge is still prominant. The popularization of sanitary toilets is good and there are still some weak links in vector control. It is suggested that the government should increase the infrastructure construction, strengthen the administradm of garbage and sewage disposal and continuously improve the rural environmental sanitation.