Rīgas ūdens states that the planned Dārziņi water supply and sewerage system would also allow Rumbula businesses to connect, but its feasibility study is scheduled for 2025–2027 and construction possibly by 2039. So here we choose a source for the long term: drilling from €65/m, a borehole about 30 m deep from €2,000.
Water in Rumbula: part of the neighbourhood without a network
Rumbula is a neighbourhood on the south-eastern outskirts, along Maskavas iela, the railway and the A6 route, with warehouses, retail, production, car repair shops, detached houses and large sparsely built areas. Rīgas ūdens places it in the group of small neighbourhoods where water supply or sewerage is not available, or only partly available, in some places, but does not name the streets.
The only public plan that touches Rumbula is the Dārziņi water management project. Riga City Council has backed it, and Rīgas ūdens writes that in future it would also allow businesses in the Rumbula industrial zone to connect. The feasibility study is scheduled for 2025–2027, while the network may be built by 2039. For a business that needs water now, this means at least ten years on its own source.
For a business: how much water and which permits
A warehouse with a few staff needs water only for the washrooms and a kitchen. For a car repair shop or a factory, use is higher and uneven, for example for washing. So before drilling we work out with you the maximum daily use and how many people will use this water, because the documents depend on both figures.
- A borehole up to 20 m deep and no more than 10 m³ per day: no licence from the State Environmental Service (VVD) needed.
- A deeper borehole or larger abstraction: the drilling company applies for the licence, state fee €35.57.
- 10 m³ per day or more, or more than 50 people use the water: a VVD water use permit (Cabinet Regulation No. 736 on water use permits).
- Abstraction above 10 m³ per day: natural resources tax on water abstraction.
Another limit is the drinking water regulation. Cabinet Regulation No. 547 on drinking water does not apply to a source used by fewer than 50 people or from which on average up to 10 m³ per day is taken, if the water is not used in a public building. For a larger business this exception no longer applies, and the monitoring requirements have to be planned at the design stage. More: borehole for a business.
Where to put the source among warehouses and car repair shops
On sites with car repair shops, fuel or chemical storage and heavy traffic next door, the borehole location matters more than in a garden. We choose a spot away from such sites and from rainwater run-off, and seal the borehole head so that surface water does not run in along the outside of the casing.
After drilling we recommend the full test (from €95). If petroleum products are handled next door, we will ask the laboratory about extra parameters; we quote their price from the laboratory's offer. If the water has iron or manganese, we select iron removal: water treatment.
For a detached house in Rumbula
For private houses in Rumbula, the same solutions work as in other outskirts of Riga without a network. The Daugava is close and there are large open areas around, so the groundwater level is worth finding out for each plot from the neighbours' sources. If the water is close to the surface, a spike well in Rumbula (“spice” in Latvian) from €350 works. If the water is deeper or the spike well water is cloudy, we will suggest a borehole with a submersible pump.
When the network arrives: what to do with the borehole
If a water main is built in the street years from now and you connect, the borehole has two lawful options. You can keep it for process water or watering, but only as a separate system: Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17 forbid connecting the network of a water abstraction borehole to the city water main, including through the building's internal network.
If you will no longer use the borehole, Cabinet Regulation No. 696 on subsoil licences requires it to be mothballed or decommissioned, and a decommissioning report is drawn up. We price decommissioning after hearing the situation, because it depends on the depth, the diameter and what is left in the borehole: borehole decommissioning.
Sources: Rīgas ūdens, contract performance report for 2025 (Rumbula); its news item on the Dārziņi water management project (Rumbula businesses, feasibility study 2025–2027, construction possibly by 2039); the law “On Subterranean Depths”, point 2 of the first part of Section 11; Cabinet Regulation No. 1055, 2.13; Cabinet Regulation No. 736, 2.1; the Natural Resources Tax Law, Section 19; Cabinet Regulation No. 547, 4.5; Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17, 63.6; Cabinet Regulation No. 696, point 21 and Annex 9. Checked 03.11.2026.
Services and prices in Rumbula
- Borehole in Rumbula: drilling from €65/m, a borehole about 30 m deep from €2,000, equipment from €500.
- Borehole pump installation: from €200, pump extra.
- Borehole cleaning: from €400, if an existing borehole gives sand or less water.
- Water testing: basic from €35, full from €95.
- Iron removal filter: with installation from €600.
Nearby neighbourhoods: Šķirotava, Dārziņi, Ķengarags and Katlakalns. All Riga neighbourhoods: Riga.