Part I describes the organizogram and objectives of the International Odra Project (IOP) for the 1997 – 2001. Scientific teams from Germany and Poland took part in the project. The main objective of the IOP program was to describe the status, trend dynamics and metabolic pathways of all types of pollution in the Odra river basin. A scientific task realized by the team from ...... University of Technology (GUT) was to assess the pollution level of organic compounds in water and sediments from the Odra river catchment area. Parts II and III will present the results obtained by the GUT team, which consist of determinations of organic pollutants in water and sediments. The assessment of heavy metals contamination and its mobilisation in water, suspended matter and bottom sediments of the upper and middle Odra river was the main task of the research group from the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow. The obtained results are presented in Parts IV and V.