**4. Conclusion**

Rivers from pristine sites are less contaminated of heavy metals and are therefore safe for consumption. However, continual anthropogenic deposition of metals in the pristine rivers could accumulate with time and rise beyond acceptable limits resulting in human health risk. It was observed that the average concentrations of some of the toxic metals were low; however, direct consumption of water from these rivers could be harmful to residents since the concentrations of metals from the mining sites were far above the USEPA and WHO drinking water guideline limits. Though alternative sources of metal deposition could be accounting for high heavy metals presence in some of the rivers, anthropogenic activities, possibly mining, are suspected to be the major contributor. The first four most contaminated sites were all from the mining sites linking metal availability to mining activities.
