The invention provides a modified naphthalene water reducer containing waste residue generated in a phenol production process, and relates to the technical field of building materials. The water reducer comprises the following components in parts by weight: 200 to 350 parts of industrial naphthalene, 220 to 400 parts of industrial concentrated sulfuric acid, 50 to 100 parts of the waste residue generated in the phenol production process, 150 to 200 parts of formaldehyde, 400 to 600 parts of liquid caustic soda, and 5 to 50 parts of water. A preparation method comprises the following steps: (1), weighing the raw materials; (2), feeding the industrial naphthalene into a four-mouth flash, heating the industrial naphthalene to 150 DEG C to be molten, rising the temperature, dropwise adding theconcentrated sulfuric acid while stirring and controlling the dropwise adding speed, performing thermal insulation reaction for 3 to 5h after dropwise adding is accomplished, and detecting the acid degree value of a material; (3), lowering the temperature to 120 DEG C, replenishing water according to the acid degree value, performing hydrolysis for 30min, adding the waste residue generated in thephenol production process after hydrolysis is accomplished, stirring for 30min, dropwise adding the formaldehyde at 100 to 115 DEG C while controlling the dropwise adding speed, performing thermal insulation reaction after dropwise adding is accomplished, and slowing adding the liquid caustic soda to regulate PH after thermal insulation is accomplished. The water reducer not only solves the problem of environment protection, but also creates an economic benefit.