A neutron activation method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of chromium, iron, lanthanum, scandium and zinc in river-water samples. The sample is sealed in the silica ampoule without pretreatment and irradiated for a week at a thermal neutron flux of $1{ imes}10^{13}n{cdot}cm^{-2}{cdot}sec^{-1}$. After cooling for about two days, the elements in the sample are sequentially extracted at different pH by 0.1M oxine-chloroform solution. The organic layers are checked by Gamma-ray spectrometry with $″3;{ imes};3″$ NaI (T1) detector connected to a 800-channel pulse hight analyzer. The ppb concentration of the elements in most of river-water samples could be determined by this method. The tracer study for the quantitative separation of the elements was also carried out.