That is why here, more often than elsewhere, you have to decide: install a new source, connect, or keep the old spike well for the garden. We help you do the sums, install the spike well or borehole and sort out whatever is left after connecting.
Where Berģi already has a water main and where it does not yet
In stage 5 of the Cohesion Fund project, 8.50 km of water mains and 19.70 km of sewers were built in the southern part of Berģi within the Riga boundary, and more than 400 properties were able to connect. At the start of 2025 Rīgas ūdens finished work around Jumiķu, Saulcerītes and Suitu iela, where 900 m of water main was renewed for existing customers on Saulcerītes, Melderu, Parka, Rožu, Berģu, Suitu and Jumiķu iela. The same year it put the design out to tender for the area around Vējdzirnavas iela and Rožu prospekts, with construction planned for 2026.
At the same time, in the Rīgas ūdens 2025 report Berģi is still on the list of neighbourhoods where services are unavailable or only partly available on some streets. The report does not name the streets and does not separate the water main from sewerage. You can find out reliably for your specific address with the Rīgas ūdens “Service availability” form.
Connect or keep your own source
In Berģi both routes are realistic, so compare them on the figures, not by habit.
| Criterion | Connection to the network | Your own source |
|---|---|---|
| One-off costs | Design and the branch pipe up to the house; no co-financing for a water main connection | Spike well from €350 or borehole from €65/m, plus pump and pipe to the house |
| Monthly costs | Rīgas ūdens tariff €1.41/m³ excluding VAT (09.2026) | Electricity for the pump, filter maintenance |
| Who looks after the water quality | The water is treated by Rīgas ūdens | The owner: tests, cleaning, filters |
In practice the decision often comes down to the state of the existing source. If the borehole is relatively new, gives enough water and the test is good, the connection can wait. If the water comes from a shallow well or an old spike well and the laboratory finds coliforms or nitrates, connecting to the network is usually more sensible than a new borehole.
A new building often has no choice. Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17 make connection compulsory if the building uses water and the public system with a branch is already at the plot boundary. These regulations place no duty to connect on existing houses with their own well or borehole. The municipality's €1,800 support in the stage 5 area applies only to the sewer connection, not the water main.
What to do with the old spike well or borehole after connecting
After connecting, the old source often stays in the garden, and there are two honest options.
- Keep it for watering. Fully disconnect the spike well or borehole pipes from the house's plumbing. Binding regulations No. 17 forbid joining a local-source network to the public one, including through the house's internal network, and a fine of up to 28 fine units can be imposed for it. Mark the garden tap as non-drinking water.
- Decommission it. If you will no longer use the borehole, its user must arrange for it to be mothballed or decommissioned, and a report is drawn up on the decommissioning. We price plugging after hearing the situation, because it depends on the borehole's depth, diameter and what is left inside it: borehole decommissioning.
- A shallow spike well you no longer need can be pulled out or at least sealed, so that surface water does not run into the ground through it.
If you keep the spike well for watering, the pump needs dry-running protection and must be drained for the winter. How to choose the pump and the flow: spike well for garden watering.
Sources: the Rīgas ūdens page “Development of the Berģi water supply networks”; the Rīgas ūdens 2025 contract performance report; the Rīgas ūdens page on municipal co-financing; Riga City Council binding regulations No. RD-25-22-sn; Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17, points 5, 63.6 and 97; Cabinet Regulation No. 696 on subsoil licences of 06.09.2011, point 21 and Annex 9. Checked 03.11.2026.
If the street has no network: a new source for a detached house
Berģi has both older detached houses and newer private-house developments. If there is no network next to your plot yet, the choice is between a spike well and a borehole. A spike well is cheaper and ready within a day if the water in the sand layer is shallow enough for a surface pump to reach. A borehole reaches an aquifer covered from above by denser sediments, and in most cases gives steadier water for a house lived in all year.
Berģi has a lake, forests and lower ground close by, so access depends on the season: in autumn and spring a drilling rig can get stuck on a wet lawn. We choose the working day by the weather and the access, and for a new build it is worth planning the source before the yard is paved: water supply for a new house.
A home source up to 20 m deep needs no licence if no more than 10 m³ is extracted per day. For a deeper borehole the drilling company arranges it before the work, and afterwards the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LVĢMC) approves the borehole passport. More: borehole registration.
Prices and neighbouring areas
A spike well in Berģi costs from €350, a borehole from €65/m, a borehole of about 30 m from €2,000 without the pump and pipe run, and submersible pump installation from €200. We add no call-out fee in Riga. The full price list: prices.
The water situation in neighbouring areas: Jugla, Bukulti, Brekši and Suži. The list of all Riga neighbourhoods is on the Riga page, and you will find the towns of the Riga region under where we work.