Vecdaugava was among the first areas where Rīgas ūdens (Riga's water utility) developed its network, so a house can get drinking water from the water main, but the lawn, flower beds and greenhouse need a lot of water in summer. We install spike wells for watering, put old wells in order and test water in the laboratory.
What we know about the Vecdaugava water main
In the Rīgas ūdens project “Water Management Development in Riga”, Vecdaugava was in the stage 1 and 2 areas, completed in 2006. In the company's 2025 report, Vecdaugava is not named on the list of neighbourhoods where services are unavailable or only partly available in some streets. That does not mean every house is connected: check your address with the Rīgas ūdens “Service availability” form.
Vecdaugava is on the right bank of the Daugava, and Rīgas ūdens writes that consumers on the right bank receive groundwater from the Baltezers and Zaķumuiža water intakes. The company does not publish separate quality figures for Vecdaugava, only city averages.
Why water from a spike well
The Rīgas ūdens tariff in September 2026 was €1.41/m³ excluding VAT. One watering with 10 mm of water on a 500 m² lawn is 5 m³, and in a dry summer there are many such waterings. You pay for a spike well with a pump once, and after that the meter does not turn for watering. For watering, water quality matters less than for drinking, but flow matters: how many litres per minute the spike well delivers to the sprinklers.
| What you water | Per watering (10 mm) | Which pump |
|---|---|---|
| Flower beds and greenhouse, ~100 m² | about 1 m³ | Surface pump with a switch |
| Lawn by the house, ~500 m² | about 5 m³ | Pump with automatic pressure control |
| Automatic watering by zones | according to zone flow | Pump chosen by the spike well's tested flow, with dry-running protection |
We measure the flow after test pumping the spike well, and only then choose the pump. If it is lower than the system needs, the watering is split into zones that switch on in turn. More: spike well for garden watering.
A garden system separate from the house plumbing
If the house is connected to the city network, the spike well system must not connect to it anywhere: not inside the house, and not through a shared tap or valve. This is set by Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17, which prohibit connecting a local water source network to the public water main. Mark the garden taps so that neither children nor guests drink from them.
Sources: Rīgas ūdens page on EU fund projects (stages 1 and 2, Vecdaugava); the Rīgas ūdens 2025 contract performance report; the Rīgas ūdens “Water abstraction” page; Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17, point 63.6; Cabinet Regulation No. 253 (engineering structures), sub-point 1 of point 6.². Checked 03.11.2026.
The nature reserve and wet spots
Descriptions of the Vecdaugava environment mention the Vecdaugava nature reserve, wetlands and nearby water, which restrict certain activities. If your plot borders the reserve or lies within it, ask the municipal building authority (būvvalde) before any drilling or digging whether the plot has special restrictions. The regulations also require an explanatory memorandum (paskaidrojuma raksts) at the building authority for a new spike well, well or borehole, so both questions can be settled at once.
In wet spots groundwater may be close to the surface, but surface water also reaches the spike well filter faster there. So we do not recommend a drinking water spike well in such a spot without a laboratory test, and we place a watering spike well as far as possible from compost, manure and the septic tank.
An old well or a spike well that no longer gives water
If an old well or spike well from the days before the network remains in the garden, the well can be cleaned and used for watering, from €150 with disinfection: well cleaning. If an old spike well gives less and less water, the cause is usually a clogged filter or air being sucked in at the joints: spike well not giving water. Whether the old spike well is worth restoring, or a new one next to it is cheaper, we decide after an inspection.
Prices and neighbouring areas
A new spike well from €350, usually €350–650, excluding the pump and the watering system; well cleaning with disinfection from €150; the full water test from €95. Vecāķu prospekts and the local roads here are long and linear, but we add no call-out fee in Riga. The full price list: prices.
Nearby neighbourhoods along the waterfront: Vecāķi, Mangaļsala, Trīsciems and Vecmīlgrāvis. The Riga page with all neighbourhoods: Riga; the Riga region: where we work.