Fluoride, as a dissolved constituent of drinking water, is the substance with beneficial andrndetrimental effects. Drinking water containing fluoride above a level of 1.5 mg/L is considered tornbe unsafe for human consumption. People in several regions of the Rift Valley of Ethiopia arernconsuming water with fluoride up to 33 mg/L. The necessity of removal of excess fluoride has ledrnto development of several defluoridation methods. However, most of the methods that have beenrnsuggested in the past have one or more shortcomings. Recent studies have been devoted tornidentify materials which has high rate of removal, economically, socially and technically feasiblernfor applications in rural communities and capable of reducing fluoride ion concentration fromrndrinking water to levels below regulatory standards. Adoption of economic and locally availablernadsorbents obtained from waste material is considered to be promising and sustainable.rnIn this study, a waste residue generated from the manufacture of alum from kaolin by the sulfuricrnacid process, were used for fluoride removal in batch operation. The fluoride removalrnperformance was investigated as a function of the contact time, amount of adsorbent dose,rnthermal pretreatment of the adsorbent, neutralization of the adsorbent, concentration of fluoride,rnpH of raw water and co-existing anions. The rate of adsorption was rapid and reaches tornequilibrium within initial 5 minutes. About 85% removal efficiency was obtained within 1 h at anrnoptimum adsorbent dose of 16 g/L for initial fluoride concentration of 10 mg/L. The removalrnefficiency of fluoride was increased with adsorbent dosage. The adsorbent was treated at arntemperature range from 100 to 700 oC. The adsorbent were neutralized using 0.1 M NaOH. Heatrntreatment and neutralizing the adsorbent have no importance on improving the material fluoridernremoval capacity and efficiency rather these have opposite effect.rnixrnThe removal of fluoride from water depends on initial fluoride concentration. For a given massrnof adsorbent, the adsorption of fluoride was efficient but lower capacity for lower initial fluoridernconcentration. The pH of the water influences the fluoride removal efficiencies of the adsorbent.rnThe defluoridation capacity was appreciable in a wide range of pH less than 8. The adsorptionrndata at ambient pH were well fitted to the Freundlich isotherm model with a minimum capacity ofrn0.19 mg/g of the media. The kinetic studies showed that the adsorption reaction of fluoridernremoval followed a pseudo-second-order rate equation with an average rate constant of 2.25 grnmin-1.mg-1. The influence of addition of anions on fluoride removal depends on the relativernaffinity of the anions for the surface and the relative concentrations of the anions. Bicarbonaternions decrease the removal efficiency significantly with concentration, little effect by phosphaternand no considerable change by chloride, sulfate and nitrate. Addition of lime with the adsorbentrnimproves treated water pH. The overall result shows the adsorbent is efficient defluoridatingrnmaterial.rnKeywords: Fluoride, Waste residue, Fluoride adsorption efficiency, Adsorption capacity, BatchrnDefluoridation, Co-existing anions