* Base of the pond should be impermeable, e.g. unfissured rock or clay, to save costs and prevent having to find a form of lining.
* Minimize excavation – use natural or man-made topographical features, e.g. borrow pits from road construction, or sloping ground.
* Site in Find areas of high intensity rainfall, as this which leads to high runoff, causing so ponds to fill with water rather than water infiltrating into the soil.
* Build small reservoirs (5-10 ha) in large watersheds – when built with a good spillway, there is no problem and reservoirs fill up quickly. Siting in this case is best determined by proximity to a village, topographical geometry or presence of roads/access. Hydrology comes into play in the design for larger reservoirs (>15 ha). However, when constructing valley dams specifically (those in a seasonal watercourse), the rule of thumb is not to build small reservoirs (below 10,000 m3) in catchments larger than 400 ha (1,000 acres), otherwise the amount of overflow is excessive to the point of creating washed-out spillways.
* In pastoralist areas, it might be good to site ponds in areas where traditionally pasture is used first after the rains. In this way, as much water as possible can be used to cover water demand before it is taken by seepage and evaporation, leaving other sources with less seepage and evaporation, e.g. sand dams, to be used later on in pasture accessed during the dry season.