An estimated 72 percent of households in rural China have access to sanitary toilets, the National Health and Family Planning Commission announced on November 19.

A previous survey in 1993 found only 7.5 percent of all rural households across the country had access to sanitary toilets. A national initiative to install toilets in rural areas was launched in 2004 to reduce incidences of infectious diseases.

According to a plan issued by the Chinese Government, 85 percent of rural households should have access to sanitary toilets by 2020.

A report by the UN Children's Fund and the World Health Organization in 2012 showed that 2.5 billion people in the world still practiced open defecation or lacked adequate sanitation facilities.