The study area lies in the upper subasin of the Mormora River in Adola Goldfield of southernrnEthiopia. It covers an area of 144 Sq. Km. Gold mining and exploration activities have been carriedrnout for the last 70 years in the area. Thee include the Legadembi Primary Gold Mine (LGM)- whichrnstarted operation in late 1989, many abandoned semi-mechanized hydraulic placer gold miningrnsites, abandoned and ongoing artisanal placer gold mining and exploration areas.rnThe area is covered by various metavolcanics and metasediments of the Adola Greenstone Belt.rnGold in the area occurs in quartz veins and silicified quartz-mica schist in association with sulphidesrn(pyrrhotite, pyrite, chalcopyrite and galena).rnThe main objective of the research is to evaluate the environmental impact of gold mining on thernlocal environment (mainly waters and sediments) with respect to some heavy metals (lead, copper,rnzinc, iron, cobalt and nickel) and other water quality parameters with potential health effects. So asrnto achieve the research objectives, twenty-three stream sediment and twenty nine (21 surface and 8rnground) water and five soil samples were collected in March 2005. Analysis for heavy metals wasrncarried out by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Field measurements of pH, electricalrnconductivity (EC), temperature and turbidity were carried out at water sampling sites. Three surfacernwater and two groundwater samples were analysed for major ions. The data are treated with the helprnof statistical techniques and geological and environmental geochemical maps were produced withrnthe help of geographic information systems (GIS) technique.rnThe following analytical results (ppm) were obtained from total size fraction of stream sedimentscobaltrn(19-81), nickel (11-149), copper (8-104), zinc (12-178) and lead (