Water-pollution control is presently one of the major areas of scientific activity. While coloured organic compounds generally impart only a minor fraction of the organic load to wastewater their colour renders them aesthetically unacceptable. Effluent discharge from textile and dyestuff industries to neighbouring water bodies and wastewater treatment systems is currently causing significant health concerns to environmental regulatory agencies. Colour removal, in particular has recently become of major scientific interest, as indicated by the multitude of related research reports. During the past two decades, several physico-chemical decolorization techniques have been reported, few, however have been accepted by the fertile industries. Their lack of implementation has been largely due to high cost, low efficiency and inapplicability to a wide variety of dyes. The ability of microorganisms to carry out dye decolorization has received much attention. Microbial decolorization and degradation of dyes is seen as a cost-effective method for removing these pollutants from the environment. Recent fundamental work has revealed the existence of a wide variety of microorganisms capable of decolorizing an equally wide range of dyes. In this review we have examined biological decolorization of dyes used in fertile industries and report on progress and limitations. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.