Wastewater contains significant sources of pollutants and contaminants. often the failure of a pipe, inadequate sealing or corrupt pipe-connections cause the loss of raw sewage, which percolates into the nearby soil. As a consequence, a colmation layer in conjunction with soil clogging is developing, which regulates the exfiltration rate. Recently, literature has emerged that offers findings about the effects of wastewater surfactants on the change of physical properties of the soil. A survey of published literature in this field provides information highlighting the influential mechanisms of surfactants in soil clogging through physical, chemical and biological processes. Therefore, to provide a comprehensive approach, this review describes the adsorption mechanisms of surfactants on organic and inorganic particles, at gas-bubbles and at biomass. We also provided our own input to the description of the adsorption of surfactants at fluid/fluid and fluid/solid interfaces in porous media associated with the clogging process.