Water is necessary for agriculture, industry, and human consumption. Reportedly, freshwater resources are scarce, and it is obvious that industrial and agricultural activities can contaminate water. Consequently, there is a need to continue searching for affordable and environmentally friendly technologies for treating water. Adsorption is a method that saves money and has become popular because it allows for the least amount of garbage to be disposed of. Hence, the contemporary situation and the primary challenges with adsorption as one of the utmost technologies for water monitoring and remediation are briefly discussed in this review article. A number of significant topics that have been extensively covered in the literature, such as adsorbent materials, adsorption operation mode, modelling, regeneration process, and operation procedure using actual samples, are all highlighted in this paper. Conclusively, the paper also outlined what directions, in the form of future prospects, will probably serve as the next steps needed to advance new perspectives and original research in the application of adsorption techniques for treating water vis-à-vis innovative techniques for water monitoring and remediation. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.). © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023.