Access to the clean and affordable water is the basic humanitarian goal and in this 21st century it has became the great challenge, owing to the rapid industrialization, irrational exploitation of water resources for various anthropogenic activities and population growth has resulted in the deterioration of the quality of water. Making waste water management as a subject that cannot be overlooked. That's where the nanotechnology promising application comes into the play. It offers varieties of process to deal with it. From Nanoabsorbent, Nanocatalyst, biopolymer, bimetallic nanoscale iron particles and nanostructure membrane leading to nanofiltration are the few examples of it. This review paper has taken into consideration the waste water treatment done with the help of various membrane processes. Here we review the nanomembrane, nanocomposite, electrospun fiber nanomembrane and aquaporin based membrane. The article has the detailed description of the development over the period of time, along with the efficiency of removal of contaminants, their specificity, and their lacking as well as the probable solution of it. The review ends with the future responsibility one can avail in the upcoming research based on nanofiltration. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.