Water is used extensively throughout textile processing operations. Almost all dyes, specialty chemicals, and finishing chemicals are applied to textile substrates from water baths. In addition, most fabric preparation steps, including desizing, scouring, bleaching, and mercerizing, use aqueous systems.

Each textile process utilizes a large amount of water, which will finally become wastewater. The most significant sources of pollution among various process stages are pretreatment, dyeing, printing, and finishing of textile materials.