Background: The expansion of human activities around Kinta River in Ipoh city in Malaysia has increased the input of organic matters to the river. The water quality of Kinta River is deteriorated significantly as result of industrial discharges, animal husbandry and agricultural activities. In this study, twenty-six sampling points were identified from the upper stream of Kinta River to the downstream including some tributaries. The physical and chemical variables including dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), pH and ammoniacal nitrogen (AN) were measured. Then, based on that, the water quality index (WQI) were calculated and classified in accordance to Department of the Environment Water Quality Index (DOE-WQI). Objective: To approximate the existence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), the specific UV absorbance (SUVA) method was conducted. The PAHs type was estimated using number of cycles in each sample resulted from SUVA values. Results: Results show, the range of WQI was from 71.74 to 22.81 in Kinta River and its tributaries. Conclusion: The highest value of SUVA (19.81 L/mg-m) was observed at Serokai River, one of Kinta tributaries river, which indicates high probability of PAHs presence. © 2015 AENSI Publisher All rights reserved.