Environmental risk assessment and water quality management are becoming increasingly important issues, particularly in view of the large number of contaminants entering the aquatic environment that are harmful to the functioning of an ecosystem. Interest in metals like Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn, which are required for metabolic activities in organisms, lies in the narrow "window" between their essentiality and toxicity. Other heavy metals like Cd, Hg, Cr and Pb may exhibit extreme toxicity even at low levels under certain conditions, thus necessitating regular monitoring of sensitive aquatic environments. The study determines the heavy metal concentrations of water from Osara dam in Kogi central area, as well as their sediments and edible parts of two fish species using ICP-OES. Water samples were collected from eight selected sampling sites from Osara dam. There results were below or within the range of the recommended limit of WHO and other recognized regulatory bodies. Similarly, the head, gills, muscle, and liver of the two fishes sample collected from Osara dams were found to contain all the analysed heavy metals (Mn, Cu, Pb, Cd, Fe, Zn, Cd, Cr, Ni, and Hg) at different levels. Some of the determine metals in the parts of the fishes may not be harmful to consumers because the observed values of heavy metals were below the permissible limits issued by WHO and other recognized regulatory bodies for human consumption however, elements like Cr, Ni and Pb call for serious concerned. Finally, Pearson’s correlation at 95% confidence levels of significance was calculated for finding relationship between elements content in water and fish sample. Significantly positive and negative correlation was observed between different elements in water and fish samples.
