What Is a Borehole? How It Works and the Types

A borehole is a narrow, deep hole drilled to reach groundwater, the water held in cracks and pores in rock and sediment underground. A pump brings the water to the surface, where it is normally stored in a tank and connected to your home, garden or farm. It gives you a private water source that does not depend on the municipal network, but you take on the work of keeping it running and the water safe.

Under the National Water Act the water itself is held in public trust by the national government. A landowner has an entitlement to use it, not ownership. Our permits and registration guide explains what that means in practice.

Public price pages quote about R300 to R750 per metre for standard geology and R600 to R1,500 per metre for hard rock such as granite. A siting survey is typically R3,500 to R10,000. Drilling, casing and a survey for a shallow 40 to 60 m hole is quoted at about R30,000 to R70,000, but residential boreholes in Gauteng are often deeper, 80 to 120 m according to one price guide. A fully equipped residential system with pump, tank and plumbing is quoted at about R60,000 to R120,000, and Gauteng at R60,000 to R100,000.

Add a yield test (about R1,500 to R5,000) and a water test (about R1,450 to R3,000). Prices depend on region, rock hardness, depth and access, so use these as a guide only. See our pricing page and cost calculator.

It depends on how much of your water use the borehole replaces, what it yields and what your municipal bill is. A household that uses a lot of municipal water can save a meaningful amount a month, but the saving after running costs and a pump replacement reserve is smaller than the headline bill. On our worked example, if the whole municipal bill falls, a household using about 30 kL a month pays back a R60,000 to R120,000 system in roughly 3.4 to 11.5 years. Where part of the bill stays, such as Johannesburg's per-stand sanitation charge, the saving is smaller and payback much longer, and a small household may never recover the cost. Many owners buy a borehole for supply security rather than savings, and security is limited by what your aquifer can sustain. DWS notes that over-exploitation of groundwater is a common problem where groundwater is a main source.

Work through the numbers in Borehole vs Municipal Water.

Your driller should give you a programme in writing. The drilling itself is only part of the timeline. A site survey comes first, your municipality may need to give consent or receive notice before drilling (Johannesburg says its decisions take 14 working days, counted from payment of its invoice), the pump and tank are installed after drilling, and laboratory results arrive after you submit a sample.