Photocatalytic degradation of organic wastes and microbes in water using solar light is a green technology that requires the design of visible light active photocatalysts. Here we report the fabrication of visible light active zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs), wherein the visible light absorption is enhanced by modulating the surface defects on the NRs. Oxygen vacancies in the NRs as characterized by photoluminescence and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy are controlled by annealing at different temperatures in the ambient. The role of surface defects on the visible light photocatalytic degradation of an organic dye, industrial waste, bacterial culture and inland brackish water is studied. Results presented here provide a simple strategy to make the wide bandgap ZnO NRs visible light active, enabling their use for the photocatalytic decontamination of water. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.