Most abandoned ponds can be upgraded as detention or retention ponds. However, some of the abandoned mining ponds have been used in an improper way such as for illegal landfill sites. The selected ponds in this study fulfil the characteristics as retention ponds in terms of location, pond capacity, inlet and outlet discharges and the facilities installation. Design rainfall was obtained from MASMA manual using Bagan Serai design storm coefficient. The peak flow rate for the drainage system was designed in 10 years ARI due to having the development of housing and industrial areas. The results show that the peak runoff by using design rainfall is much higher than the peak flow from current rainfall. The volume of the pond has been designed for 10, 50 and 100 years ARI (Average Recurrence Interval). The storage can be exceeded up to 130000m3 whereas the availability of this natural pond is up to 156000m3. Thus it is concluded that the capacity of the ex-mining pond is sufficient to cater for the runoff from catchment areas. The abandoned mining pond has the potential to be developed as part of the infrastructure in future. © 2012 WIT Press.