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This document summarizes the findings of the CIFA Working Party on Pollution and Fisheries. It gives advice on strategies for aquatic pollution control, including the establishment of environmental quality standards, emphasizing the use of risk assessment methodologies for arriving at site-specific environmental protection measures. The document further reviews the state of the African aquatic environment in respect of pollution by organic loads, by heavy metals and by organochlorine substances. It concludes that contamination of African inland waters, with the exception of some hot-spot areas, is still relatively low. Pollution by organic matter, causing eutrophication and anoxia, however, is identified as a major threat to fisheries. Although contamination with metals and organochlorines is still low, with the expected increases in urbanization and socio-economic activities, it is imperative to identify the sources and quantify the discharges of such material into the aquatic environment. The occurrence of synthetic micropollutants like organochlorine substances in different compartments of the aquatic environment, even at trace and ultra-trace levels, is of ecological and environmental health concern. Pollution control strategies should be formulated in all countries, covering legislation, environmental standards and criteria, waste minimization, effluent treatment, pollution monitoring, training, education and public awareness campaigns.