Objective To develop a new method for the determination of five anions in drinking water by capillary zone electrophoresis with indirect ultraviolet detection. Methods The water samples were directly injected without filtration. The separation was carried out on an uncoated fused-silica capillary (75 μm×80 cm, effective length:70 cm). The separation buffer consisted of 20 mmol/L phthalic acid, 100 mmol/L diethanolamine and 0.5 mmol/L cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. Results The corrected area and the mass concentrations had good linear relationships in the ranges of 0.5-100.0,0.2-20.0,0.5-100.0,0.2-4.0 and 0.2-5.0 mg/L, with correlation coefficients of 0.998 8,0.999 9,0.999 7,0.999 7 and 0.999 8, respectively for Cl-, NO₃-, SO₄2-, F- and H₂PO₄-. The limit of detection was all 0.05 mg/L and the limit of quantitation was 0.15 mg/L for all of the five anions. The relative standard deviations of the method were all lower than 5%(n=6). The average spiked recoveries at three concentration levels were in the ranges of 81.6%-108.6% with relative standard deviations of 0.6%-3.7% (n=6), respectively. Seven samples were analyzed and the result were compared with those of ion chromatographic (IC)method. They agreed well except that the result of Cl- in mineral water was lower than that of IC determination. Conclusion The method was simple without any consumption of organic solvents. The drinking water sample could be directly injected without filtration. It provided a new alternative method for the routine determination of five anions in drinking water. But it was not suitable for the analysis of drinking water samples with low Cl- concentration.