The vigorous increase of the frequency of water pollution has become serious bottlenecks constraining national economy and modern industry development. Therefore, the research on the control and treatment of water contaminants is of great significance and urgency. Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), as a product of chemical and material science that have been rapidly developing in recent years, have received extensive attention around the world and have been applied to waste water treatment owing to their stable structure, high surface area and excellent performance. Taking the ZIF-8 as the representative, this paper reviews the research and development on the application of ZIFs to remove water contaminants. The performance of the ZIFs in removal of water contaminants as the adsorbent and photocatalyst is introduced systematically, the factors influencing water contaminants removal by ZIFs are summed up. Moreover, it has carried on the forecast to later period' s research. The objective of this paper is to provide theoretical reference for the practical application of ZIFs to the treatment of real waste water.