The invention relates to a method for detecting trivalent arsenic in water body through a colourimetry by using protoheme peroxidase catalytic activity, chlorhematin has horseradish peroxidase activity, under the existence of hydrogen peroxide, a chromogenic substrate 3,3', 5,5'-tetramethyl benzidine (TMB) can be catalyzed to generate an oxidation reduction reaction, the solution have variable color change by naked eyes, the addition of a nucleic acid aptamer can inhibit catalytic activity, after adding the trivalent arsenic in the solution, the catalytic activity obtains recovery, so that the color of a whole system enables substantial change, the absorbance and trivalent arsenic concentration at 442nm present a direct proportion relation, thereby the method can be used for detecting the trivalent arsenic of the water body. The detection method provided by the invention has the advantages of high sensitivity and good selectivity, the lowest detection limit is 1ppb, the operation is simple, and a large-scale apparatus is not required, and the method can be used for detecting the trivalent arsenic in drinking water.