Sugarcane bagasse is the major solid waste product of the sugarcane industry. As a plant-derived biomass it is an attractive environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum-based materials. Being a non-food agriculture product, its use as a raw material is more widely accepted. Sugarcane bagasse is comprised mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The aim of this study was to develop a low-cost anion exchange adsorbent from sugarcane bagasse for the removal of phosphates in waste water. To obtain cellulose for covalent linkage with chitosan, the bagasse was pretreated with dilute sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide solutions followed by bleaching with hydrogen peroxide. After this process, the material was modified using chitosan modified with epichlorohydrin to obtained the modified bagasse SGB-CS. SGB-CS was characterized with different techniques. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis indicated that the content of lignin and hemicellulose were successfully reduced. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the cellulose was successfully extracted from sugarcane bagasse as the crystallinity index increased from 48.03% to 66.50%, an observation that was attributed to the loss of amorphous biopolymers (lignin and hemicellulose). The grafting of chitosan derivatives within the matrix of cellulose was confirmed by an increase in the FTIR band intensity at 1647 cm-1 of the modified SGB-CS. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was conducted to probe the surface morphology of the material. Energy dispersive X-ray analyser (EDX) showed the presence of chloride and nitrogen elements on the SGB-CS which was attributed to the epichlorohydrin and amine groups of chitosan. In the test of its ability to remove phosphate from synthetic waste water the bio-adsorbent (SGB-CS) achieved a 60% removal and an adsorption capacity of 27.55 mg/g, where the initial concentration was 29.84 mg/L at an adsorbent dosage of 0.2 g. This shows the potential of this natural biopolymer-based material to serve as a pretreatment material for the removal of phosphates in aqueous solutions.