The ability of natural microbial consortium, known in Egypt as “Samakat El-Sheffa", to accumulate cadmium ions from aqueous solutions was examined and compared with that obtained by individual pure culture of Zymomonas mobilis or Pseudomonas putida. In continuous system using packed bed  column reactor, the natural microbial consortium “Samakat El-Sheffa" effictively adsorbed Cd from solution. An uptake of 46 % (w/w) was observed after 30 min (initial concentration 50 ppm Cd²⁺) and 45 % (w/w) after 250 min (initial concentration 245 ppm Cd²⁺). By replacing the saturated microbial consortium in the column, at the end of the experiment, with a fresh consortium it was possible to achieve Cd adsorption efficiencies of 81 % (w/w) after 4 dayes. In batch system, however, no saturation was observed and Cd uptack was complete within only 210 min. The optimum pH for Cd accumulation was 7.0. Three pure microbial strains were isolated from the natural microbial consortium and identified as Pseudomonas spp., Saccharomyces spp. and Candida spp < /em>. Cadmium accumulation efficencies by the isolated strain of Pseudomonas spp. was higher  (99.8 % w/w after 30 min) than those of both mixed population (74.2 % w/w after 90 min) or natural consortium (93.4 % w/w after 180 min). Compared to the other bacterial strains, microbial consortium has the most favourable feature for cadmium removal; high adsorption ability, good mechanical properties and an excellent applicability in a column system. The feasibility of using such microbial consortium on larger scale process was discussed.