Industrial processes generate huge amounts of hazardous effluents every day. Conventional purification techniques, such as biological methods (aerobic and anaerobic treatment) and chemical coagulation, are commonly applied to purify wastewaters. Tertiary treatment methods e.g., ultraffltration, zonation, adsorption and UV light disinfection have also been examined for the purpose. However, these techniques are not capable of removing all harmful compounds and pathogenic microbes from wastewater. Therefore, novel methods should be developed for using together with these techniques to improve the purification results. Interest in water treatment by electrochemical methods has grown in recent years. Electrochemical oxidation has been applied successfully to degrade different organic pollutants and disinfect drinking water and municipal wastewaters. Also many industrial wastewaters, such as textile, olive oil, pulp and paper mill and tannery effluents have been treated successfully by this technique. This review article shows that electrochemical oxidation can be used to treat effluents from different sources and also to disinfect different microbes present in wastewaters and drinking water. It also gives an overview of the recent developments in electrode preparation and configurations. Coupling this technique together with other methods has also increased purification results in a remarkable way. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.