Objective To investigate the status of waste and sewage treatment in rural areas of Hunan Province, China from 2019 to 2021, and to provide scientific references for developing strategies for waste and sewage treatment.

Methods By stratified random sampling, this study selected 32 counties from 14 prefecture-level cities in Hunan Province, and from the counties, selected 640 administrative villages, 3200 households, 285 village enterprises, 39 waste treatment plants, and 103 sewage treatment plants. A unified questionnaire survey was performed to collect data including rural general information and the status of waste and sewage treatment.

Results From 2019 to 2021, for treatment method of domestic waste in rural areas of Hunan Province, the proportion of unified collection continued to increase, from 63.90% in 2019 to 75.31% in 2021, with those of landfill and incineration decreased and reuse increased. For domestic sewage in 2019—2021, the proportions of arbitrary discharge and discharge into open ditches continued to decrease. From 2019 to 2021, the proportions of industrial waste and breeding industry waste for reuse in rural areas of Hunan Province continued to increase significantly, and the proportions of industrial sewage and breeding industry sewage discharged after treatment had a 1.28-fold and 1.44-fold increase, respectively. In 2021, the waste treatment plants and sewage treatment plants in Hunan Province covered 46.90% and 31.91% of the total population, and covered 57.25% and 38.87% of the rural population.

Conclusion The collection and treatment of waste in rural areas of Hunan Province have made progress, but the treatment method need further optimization. Sewage discharge and treatment should be improved. The treatment capacities of waste and sewage treatment plants should be strengthened.