Now days, the attention given and focus on heavy metals determination is increased because of their serious environmental problems which in turn adverse health effects. These toxic heavy metals are not easily degraded. Tannery industries are one of the most highly pollution intensive sector in developing countries like Africa. This is because of most of the industries don’t apply appropriate wastewater treatment plant and waste management practices, including Bahir Dar Tannery. In this study the concentration of heavy metals such as, Cr (III), Cd (II) and Cu (II) in the waste water effluent discharge from Bahir Dar Tannery was investigated in square wave anodic stripping voltammetric (SWASV) technique using anthraquinone modified carbon paste electrode. The experimental conditions were optimized to obtain the best result. In this regard, deposition potential, deposition time, pulse amplitude, and pH of the solution were optimized and their optimum value for this work is found to be −1.3 V, 120 sec, 0.045 V, and 2.0, respectively. The SWASV peak currents were increase linearly with increasing concentration for all metals in the range of 0.6 to 2.0 mM. The oxidation peak potentials for Cr (III), Cd (II) and Cu (II) in this work are -1.4V, -0.7V and -0.1V, respectively. The samples for this study were taken from three sites: one is from direct disposal point, the second is from a place where water is using for irrigation, and the third is from a place where the water is entering to Abbay River. The amount of Cu (II) and Cd (II) measured in the first site was 319.6 and 251.8 mg/l, in site two was 34.3 and 31.3 mg/l, and in site three was 17.8 and 11.6 mg/l, respectively. All the values are significantly higher than the maximum tolerable values set by both WHO and FAO. In this study, Cr (III) was not detected. But this does not totally mean there was no Cr (III). Key words: voltammetric technique, Bahir Dar Tannery, Anthraquinone, heavy metals, carbon paste electrode.