Water boreholes and treatment in Spilve - warehouses and the few houses on the low meadows

Two Spilves: which one is yours

The names are often confused. The Riga neighbourhood of Spilve is in the Rīgas ūdens service area, and its 2025 report lists Spilve in the group of small neighbourhoods (fewer than a thousand residents) where services are unavailable or only partly available. We found no expansion project for Riga's Spilve. In the village of Spilve in Mārupe municipality, mains water is supplied in part of the village by Mārupes komunālie pakalpojumi, and the connection rules there are different: Mārupe.

If the property is in Riga's Spilve, the Rīgas ūdens “Service availability” form shows the connection options for a specific address. If there is no network nearby, the water source will have to be installed on your own plot, and for most commercial sites that means a borehole.

Low meadows and drainage: the borehole head must not flood

The Spilve area has low meadows, drainage ditches and the Daugava nearby, so flooding and high humidity have to be taken into account. Building code LBN 222-15 “Water Supply Structures” states that the borehole head may be placed in a shaft only if flooding is completely ruled out. The underground chamber must be at least 1.8 m high, the end of the casing pipe at least 0.5 m above the floor, and the borehole structure must be watertight so that water enters only through the filter.

Where water stands in spring, we therefore do not sink the borehole head into a pit. We choose either a head above ground in an insulated housing, or a pitless adapter, which lets the pipe to the house leave underground while the top of the borehole stays above the possible water level. Where a caisson still works and where it does not: borehole caisson.

For a warehouse or a farm building

Warehouses need water for sanitary facilities and a kitchen, and sometimes also for washing vehicles or filling a fire-fighting reservoir. Consumption determines which documents are needed. A borehole up to 20 m deep from which no more than 10 m³ per day is taken needs no licence from the State Environmental Service (VVD). If abstraction is 10 m³ per day or more, you also need a water use permit, and the application is submitted to VVD at least 60 days before water abstraction starts.

Very large users planning more than 100 m³ per day also need a groundwater deposit passport; the VVD state fee for up to 1,000 m³ per day is €398.40. Natural resources tax is payable only on abstraction above 10 m³ per day. Before drilling, we help you work out which group your site is in: borehole for a business.

After drilling, the borehole is tested by test pumping. The borehole passport records the static and dynamic water level, the drawdown and the yield in litres per second. For a commercial site these are the most important figures: they show whether the borehole will cope with peak consumption, and we choose the pump and the pressure tank volume from them. We do not promise a yield in advance, because the aquifer determines it.

Water quality and filters for a commercial site

Rīgas ūdens publishes no separate figures for Spilve, and they would not apply to water from your own borehole anyway. After drilling and flushing we take a sample, an accredited laboratory analyses it, and we explain the result. The full test with microbiology costs from €95.

• Iron or manganese above the reference values in Cabinet Regulation No. 547 on drinking water (200 µg/l and 50 µg/l): iron removal, with installation from €600.
• Coliforms or E. coli: first the borehole head seal and disinfection, then, if needed, UV water disinfection.
• A rotten egg smell (hydrogen sulphide): rotten egg smell in water.

We plan filter maintenance for a commercial site by consumption, not by the calendar, because in a warehouse with a changing number of staff a filter wears unevenly: water filter maintenance.

Services and prices in Spilve

• Borehole in Spilve: drilling from €65/m, a borehole about 30 m deep from €2,000.
• Borehole equipment: from €500, pump not included; borehole head, pitless adapter or caisson.
• Submersible pump installation: from €200.
• Water testing: basic from €35, the full test from €95.
• Filter installation and maintenance: from €40/h.

Access in Spilve depends on the particular site: part of the area can be reached via Daugavgrīvas iela, part via roads towards Kleisti. In your request, tell us which way the drilling rig can drive in and whether the site has a pass system.

Neighbouring areas

In the north-west of Pārdaugava, next to Spilve, are Iļģuciems, Kleisti, Voleri and Bolderāja. All neighbourhoods: Riga.