If not properly taken care of, ground water is potentially hazardous to a basement excavation, as it may lead to excavation failure or jeopardize the construction of basement structure. This paper discusses how dewatering is carried out for basement excavation, the basic layout is to use deep wells and sumps in conjunction. It is noted that dewatering strategy varies in accordance with in situ soil condition, in order to obtain optimal dewatering performance, issues such as the layout of dewatering system, depth and number of wells must be carefully evaluated. Two relevant subjects, including dewatering related ground subsidence and possible schemes to seal off ground water leakage, are also addressed in this paper. Dewatering itself is an art in essence, the design of an appropriate dewatering system requires engineering judgment incorporating both theory and field experience.