The textile industry, in particular the wet industry, has been considered as one of the major water environment polluters. This is mainly due to the enormous amount of water and the complexity of the chemicals used in the manufacturing processes that end up in the wastewater. The poorly treated wastewater is still highly colored comprising of significant amounts of nonbiodegradable chemicals that are hazardous to the environment. Under anaerobic condition, some of the organics i. e. the azo dyes are transformed into more toxic chemicals (i. e. amines) that worsen the condition. The color will make a river inhabitable to a majority of aquatic plants and animals.

While there are many technologies available in treating the wastewater, a majority of them are relatively expensive to be applied by the small and mid-size industries. Furthermore, many of the physico-chemical technologies only transform the pollutants from one form or one phase to another and therefore do not provide any ultimate solution to the problem.

A conventional aerobic bioprocess fails to treat the wastewater due to the non­biodegradable nature of the wastewater. However, recent research and advancement in biological processes show that there is a huge potential of these new findings in providing low cost yet efficient technology to solve the textile wastewater problem.