The Tikveš Basin, which covers the central and the
south parts of the Republic of Macedonia, boasts a favourable
geographic location and is of distinctive strategic and economic
importance for the country. The region, however, has modest
hydrological resources and faces a series of accumulated water
management problems that hugely affect water supply, erosive
processes and quality of surface water, the monitoring network
of which is insufficient. In this respect, this work aimed at a
more systematic and comprehensive assessment of water
quality in some rivers, tributaries of the river Vardar in Tikveš
Basin, primarily based on heavy metals as the chemical
parameters during 2010. Besides determining the distribution
of heavy metals in the rivers, the secondary priority is given to
identifying the natural and the anthropogenic sources of
pollution. The assessment of water quality at small tributaries
of the river Vardar in the Tikveš Basin in 2010, based on their
pollution with heavy metals, can lead to a general conclusion
that the Luda Mara River has the lowest summary quality at
the measurement point downstream the urban settlement of
Kavadarci. Exceeded concentrations of Mn, Cu and Cd were
recorded in the water and of Cu and Ni in the sediment. The
Blašnica River had high concentrations of arsenic in water
whose origin is related to mining activities of the abandoned
As-Sb-Tl mine of Allchar. Exceeded concentrations of Pb and
Cu were also recorded in water as were concentrations of
nickel and chromium in the sediment. The high values for Ni
and Cr originate from mine activities of the Ržanovo mine
(ferro-nickel ores), located in the very proximity of the river
flow.