The water crisis is one of the biggest human problems in developing countries,especially in semi-arid regions where it can form an obstacle to irrigation and cultivation,cattle raising and people's survival.The construction of small dams/reservoirs are a possible solution to remediate this problem.These in-frastructures must be located in suitable areas to be successful.This study aimed to find the most suitable locations for small dams/reservoirs in the Tete province region,Mozambique,which has a pronounced water deficit.A Geographical Information System(GIS)based approach was used to implement a multi-criteria evaluation(MCE)analysis through an Analytic Hierarchical Process(AHP),which included local experts'consultation.Three main categories of suitability were identified:"Not suitable"(15％of total area),"Modestly suitable"(78％),and"Suitable"(7％).We found that 35 of the 38(92％)abandoned small dams/reservoirs were in areas classified as"Modestly suitable"confirming the robustness of our model.We also found that most of the dams/reservoirs currently operating(78％)and planned(73％)are in modestly suitable areas.This finding suggests that the decision to construct dams/reservoirs may not have considered the most critical suitability factors identified in this study.More data and/or additional criteria are required for the full understanding of finding out why so many dams/reservoirs failed before building new ones to address the population's water needs in the region.
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