As an important energy and chemical industry base of the Yellow River Basin, the Qinmang River Basin is facing a prominent contradiction between the supply and demand of water resources. In the hope of providing an exemplary case study for the implementation of the major national strategy of ecological conservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, we evaluated the sustainable utilization of water resources in the Qinmang River Basin using the ecological footprint theory and conducted an equilibrium analysis of water resources ecological footprint (WEF) of the basin. The water resources ecological footprint model was used to calculate the WEF of various administrative regions in the Qinmang River Basin, and Theil index was used to analyze their equilibrium status from 2010 to 2019. The results show that there were some differences in the WEF in the five prefecture-level administrative regions of the Qinmang River Basin, among which the WEF in two of the regions were relatively large, and the rest three were small. All the administrative regions were in ecological deficit, and the disequilibrium of agricultural ecological footprint was more prominent. The differences within each individual group gradually exceeded the differences between groups and became the main factor affecting the equilibrium of WEF in the basin. On the whole, the ecological condition of water resources in the Qinmang River Basin was poor during the study period.