The potential increase of water retention capacity in the ponds of the Wyskoć catchment in western Poland is estimated and presented. Only water bodies having area smaller than 2 ha were taken into consideration. There are 638 ponds in the Wyskoć catchment, from among wetland and grassland ponds are the most numerous (they both constitute about 59% of all water bodies). The analyzed ponds retain above 562x10³ m³ of water. However, the amount of retained water could be increased by 886x10³ m3 (in relation to current pond retention) if pond retention is considered and by other 880x10³ m³ in case of groundwater retention in areas adjoining. The increase of water level in ponds from 0.5 to 1.5 m due to damming water in the outflow or retention of drainage water so far unproductively discharged out of the catchment area was considered as a potential source of retained water. The highest relative increase of water retention in ponds and in adjoining areas could be obtained in midfield and farmstead ponds with the smallest average area. However, for the smallest water bodies with surface area less than 0.5 ha, the potential relative increase of groundwater retention is higher than the retention increase in the pond itself. This means that the smaller the pond and the smaller value of current water body retention, the bigger relative increase of groundwater retention in the areas adjacent to pond in relation to the increase of the water level in pond. The results proved that the small ponds could be very valuable elements of a landscape influencing water regime of agriculturally managed areas. They should be protected and used for water storage. The presented method could be useful to fast, easy and cheap macro-scale estimation of potential water capacity of water bodies.