The Cheleka River catchment is located in the Northeast part of Ethiopia, particularly in the Amhara national regional state with areal coverage of 476 km 2 . The objective of the study is to carry out a detailed groundwater potential assessment and Quality of the alluvial and fractured aquifers. Development of groundwater in the area before the detailed investigation will expose the groundwater resource of the catchment to risk, and ultimately a problem threatening the water supply becomes foreseeable. Different approaches have been used to quantify the main hydrometeorological components and estimate the recharge amount of the catchment. The annual rainfalls of the study area were analyzed by using Arithmetic and Isohyetal methods from existing meteorological point data, found nearby and within the study area. A total of 8 thematic layers were prepared and studied for groundwater potential zone demarcation using analytical hierarchical process techniques (AHP). Weights assigned to each class in all the thematic maps are based on their characteristics and water potential capacity through the AHP method. The major lithological units identified in the study area are volcanic rocks and alluvial deposits. The actual evapotranspiration of the catchment is calculated by evaluating the land use land cover type, soil texture, and their areal proportion and is computed to be 741.2 mm per year. The annual runoff of the catchment is 173mm and the annual recharge to the groundwater by soil water balance and chloride mass balance methods is 98.3 and 108mm/year respectively. Groundwater potential of the study is categorized into five categories as very high, high, moderate, low and very low of groundwater potential zone. Very low groundwater potentials cover 92.37 km of northwestern highlands of the study area, and low groundwater potential covers 138.63 km . Moderate groundwater potentials cover 162.31 km 2 covers northeastern and eastern plateaus of the area. High to Very high groundwater potentials are covers 59.15 km 2 and 23.54 km 2 , respectively to the central lowlands of Degan area and the north western of the study area. The dominant Water types in the catchment are Ca-HCO3, Ca-Na-HCO3, Ca-Mg-HCO3, and Na-Ca-SO4-HCO3. The water sources from boreholes and springs in the study area are free from any pollution and hence fit for drinking purposes and for irrigation use. This study can provide inputs for groundwater development activities, further studies and future sustainability use of the resource. 2 2