The secondary wastewater treatment plant of the dyeing and finishing mill, from where the wastewater sample for the present study was obtained, employed pH equalization, chemical coagulation, activated sludge, decolorization and
post-biofiltration steps in the treatment process. The COD concentration of the wastewater effluent from the waste- water treatment plant was consistently below 200 mg I-' and the transparency was above 20 cm with SS below l0 mg I ~.These water quality parameters were significantly better than the discharge standards required by the government for the textile industry. However, the wastewater effluent was still faintly colored and the conductivity rather high, being over 4500/~mho cm-'. This high conductivity was caused by
the fact that NaOH, other inorganic compounds and surfactants were used in various steps of the dyeing and finishing process. Although the majority of sodium hydroxide was recovered for reuse, a significant amount of NaOH and other inorganic compounds still remained in the a wastewater. The conductivity of treated wastewater needs to be reduced by ion exchange to meet the reuse requirement