Background and purpose: Quality of surface waters is important for different uses and identification of contaminated sites and pollutants leads to appropriate use of water. So, the aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of water Babolrood.

Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, sampling was conducted in ten stations during summer 2013. Data was analyzed using National Sanitation Foundation Water Quality Index (NSFWQI) and SPSS, and then the river’s path was zoned by Geographic Information System (GIS).

Results: Based on NSFWQI, the best status was found in second station (79, good) and the worst was observed in station 10 (52, moderate).

Conclusion: Based on NSFWQI, the quality of river was good in upstream and moderate in downstream, indicating human as the main responsible for low quality of water.