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The rapid growth of industrial and agricultural activities in Malaysia are leading to the impairment of most of the rivers in recent years through realising various trace metals. This leads to toxicity, particularly when the toxic has entered the food chain. Perak River is one of the most dynamic rivers for the Malaysian population. Therefore, in consideration of the safety issue, this study was conducted to assess the concentration of such metals (Cd, Cu, Zn, Fe, and Pb) in the muscles of most widely consumed fish species (Barbonymus schwanenfeldii, Puntius bulum, Puntius daruphani, Hexanematichthys sagor, Channa striatus, Mystacoleucus marginatus, and Devario regina) from different locations of Perak River, Malaysia by employing inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Among the trace metals, Fe and Cd were found to be the highest (29.33-148.01 μg/g) and lowest (0.16-0.49 μg/g) concentration in all of the studied species, respectively. Although the estimated daily intakes (μg/kg/day) of Cd (0.65-0.85), Fe (79.27-352.00) and Pb (0.95-12.17) were higher than their reference, the total target hazard quotients values suggested that the local residents would not experience any adverse health effects from its consumption. In contrast, the target cancer risk value suggested that all fish species posed a potential cancer risk due to Cd and cumulative cancer risk values, strongly implying that continuous consumption of studied fish species would cause cancer development to its consumers.

An inventory study of fishes was carried out from June 2003 to May 2004 at Sungai Enam and Sungai Telang, which was last logged 40 years ago. In spite of the negative impacts of logging, the study recorded a total of 21 fish species in these headwaters, comprising nine families. Sungai Telang recorded 19 species with 11 species classified as "locally rare", whereas Sungai Enam recorded 11 species with nine species classified as "locally rare". When species from previous studies were included, the total number of species recorded in Sungai Enam and Sungai Telang was 28 and 27 species respectively. The presence of Devario regina, Neolissochilus soroides and Poropuntius smedleyi in all inventory studies conducted indicate that both headwaters are healthy, and function as sources of clean water, nutrient supplies and fish recruits for Temengor Reservoir.