Connecting to mains water or your own well: what to choose

How connection works: the common steps

1. Availability Find out whether there is a water main in the street and whether there is a branch up to the plot boundary. In Riga, this is shown by the Rīgas ūdens (Riga's water utility) “Service availability” form and vaitevtovajag.lv, in Mārupe municipality by the MKP network map, and in Sigulda municipality by the Saltavots network map.
2. Technical conditions Submit an application to the water utility with the property documents, the boundary plan and the planned consumption. In most municipalities technical conditions are issued free of charge, but they can be refused while there is an unpaid debt for services.
3. Design A certified designer prepares the service pipe design, which is filed with the municipal building authority (būvvalde) with an explanatory memorandum (paskaidrojuma raksts) or, in a simple case, a notification. It is built by a construction company or a certified specialist under the supervision of the water utility.
4. Handover The owner submits an as-built survey plan, and the utility fits and seals the meter. In several municipalities, you have to confirm in writing that the local well, borehole or spike well (“spice” in Latvian) is not connected to the mains network.
5. Contract The utility signs a service contract, and the water supply starts.

Riga: Rīgas ūdens

At the end of 2025, mains water was available to 98.04% of Riga's residents. Still without it are Dārziņi, Trīsciems (water main only on Jaunciema gatve) and Mangaļsala, where a local system operates. In many other neighbourhoods, individual streets lack a water main or sewerage.

Rīgas ūdens prepares technical conditions within 11 working days free of charge, if there are no debts. Rīgas ūdens does not design or build private connections itself: the owner chooses the designer and the builder. If the network in the street has to be built or rebuilt, Rīgas ūdens organises the work at the applicant's expense under a connection agreement. The water tariff is €1.41/m³ excluding VAT (September 2026).

There is no co-financing for water mains in Riga. Rīgas ūdens states it directly: “No co-financing is provided for water supply system connections.” The earlier programme, which also covered water mains, ceased to apply on 01.04.2026.

Riga's rules do not require existing houses with their own well to connect; for new buildings it is mandatory if there is a network and a branch up to the plot boundary. The water situation in the city: Riga.

The Riga region: water utilities and technical conditions

Co-financing for a water main connection

Priority groups differ between municipalities, but they are usually needy and low-income persons, large families, persons with disabilities and single pensioners. In most municipalities the owner must be registered as resident at the property and have no tax debts, and the money is granted within the annual budget. Before the work, check the current version on likumi.lv, because the rules change.

When your own well or borehole is the wiser choice

• There is no water main in the street and there will not be one in the coming years. In Dārziņi, a feasibility study is running from 2025 to 2027, and the chair of a Riga City Council committee has said that implementation may take until 2039.
• The trunk main is far away, and you would have to pay for building the street network yourself.
• You need water for watering the garden: your own spike well provides it without a tariff per cubic metre, while the house stays on city water.

Connecting makes sense if the trunk main already runs past the plot: you do not have to look after a pump, filters and testing, and the utility controls the water quality. The costs of your own source are a spike well from €350 or a ~30 m borehole from €2,000 without the pump, plus the pump, electricity and, if the tests show it is needed, water treatment.

Tariffs for comparison (excluding VAT): Rīgas ūdens €1.41/m³, Ādažu ūdens €1.42/m³, Ķekavas nami €1.09/m³, Mārupes komunālie pakalpojumi €0.78/m³, Valgums-S €1.66/m³ (from 01.10.2026). If you choose your own source, we build the whole system, from the source to the tap: water supply system for a private house.

Can you keep your own well after connecting

Yes, but as a separate system. In Riga it is prohibited to connect the network of a local water source, such as a borehole, to the mains water supply, including through the inlet or the house's internal network, and the fine is up to 28 fine units (€140). In Ķekava municipality, Jūrmala and Bauska municipality, if a building has both sources, the connection needs an air gap of at least 50 mm or a special non-return valve. In Ogre and Ropaži municipalities, the two sources must not be used at the same time.

A spike well or a well for garden watering can be kept if it is not connected to the house's water pipes. If you will no longer use a borehole, it is decommissioned so that surface water does not get through it into the deeper layer: borehole decommissioning.