Eutrophication has become a critical environmental concern of surface water bodies in Ethiopia due to release of untreated wastewater containing especially phosphate and nitrogen. The objective of this study was to evaluate the phosphate removal capacity of WTR from synthetic and actual wastewater samples. For this purpose, WTR from Gefersa Water Treatment Plant was collected, air dried, grinded, sieved through 2.0, 0.125 and 0.063 mm sieves. Then batch experiments were conducted by mixing WTR with in 100 ml synthetic phosphate solution having concentration of 4 mg/L. Accordingly, 2 g WTR was found to be optimal dose resulting in 97.25 % reduction of phosphate. Adsorption tests have been conducted at pH of 3, 4, 6, 8 and 9; the optimal pH was found out to be 4 resulting in 87 % reduction of the phosphate from the solution. The optimal contact duration period found out to be 12 hours with phosphate removal efficiency of 94.82 %. The maximum adsorption capacity of the WTR was found out to be 1,709 mg/Kg. Batch adsorption tests were also conducted on actual wastewater collected from Abattoir’s and Brewery’s facilities, and the WTRs have removed 95 % and 99.8 % of the phosphate from the wastewaters respectively. Removal of the phosphate through adsorption using Water Treatment Residue (WTR) is cost effective as compared to chemical methods. Thus WTR was found out to be efficient adsorbent for removal of phosphate from wastewater. Key words: WTR, adsorption, adsorbent, phosphate