In part of the neighbourhood, stage 4 of the Cohesion Fund project built water and sewer networks with branch connections up to the plot boundaries, but elsewhere the 2025 report of Rīgas ūdens (Riga's water utility) says services are only partly available. We install spike wells for gardens and for houses without the network from €350, drill boreholes from €65/m and help the owner of a new build understand when a connection is compulsory and when their own source is the only route.
Bišumuiža streets: network, branch or nothing
Bišumuiža is a neighbourhood on the left bank of the Daugava with detached houses, low-rise housing, industrial and warehouse sites and a few blocks of flats; Bauskas iela runs through it and the Southern Bridge (Dienvidu tilts) reaches it. In terms of water it has three kinds of streets.
- Streets that were in stage 4 of the Rīgas ūdens project. The project area was called Katlakalns, but it included part of Ziepniekkalns and part of Bišumuiža; new water mains were built there with branches up to the plot boundaries.
- Streets with older city networks, where houses have long been connected.
- Streets or areas with no water main or sewer; the report does not name them or say which of the two is missing.
The Rīgas ūdens “Service availability” form shows which group your address is in.
A new build: when a connection is compulsory
Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17 state that a connection is compulsory for a new building that will use water (not counting outbuildings) if the street has a public system and a branch up to the plot boundary. That is often exactly the case on the stage 4 streets in Bišumuiža. So a new house there will get its drinking water from the network, and your own spike well can be installed only for the garden as a separate system.
If there is no branch at the boundary, you can plan your own source for the new build. Then the choice is between a spike well and a borehole, decided by the water depth, the family's consumption and the water quality. How to plan water for a house still under construction: water supply for a new house.
Bišumuiža has one more difference from the edges of Riga without the network: there are industrial and warehouse areas nearby. That is why it is worth checking your own drinking water source with a full test in the very first month, not only once a smell or colour appears.
Co-financing: what changed on 01.04.2026
Until spring 2026 the stage 4 areas (Bieriņi and Pleskodāle, Katlakalns with part of Ziepniekkalns and Bišumuiža, Bolderāja) had their own Riga City Council binding regulations No. 67. These also covered a combined water main and sewer connection, in the latest version at 60%, up to €3,000. From 01.04.2026 these regulations lost force.
Bišumuiža now falls under the general Riga procedure, which provides support only for a sewer connection. Rīgas ūdens says it plainly: no co-financing is provided for water supply system connections. So you pay for the water branch on your own plot and the entry into the house yourself, and it is worth comparing that with the cost of your own source.
A garden spike well and the paperwork
A watering spike well is the cheapest way to get water for the garden without a bill. In the regulations it is a water abstraction borehole, and up to 20 m deep and 10 m³ per day it needs no licence from the State Environmental Service (VVD). A well and a borehole are first-group engineering structures, so Cabinet Regulation No. 253 (engineering structures) requires an explanatory memorandum (paskaidrojuma raksts) at the municipal building authority (būvvalde) for a new spike well; the VVD infographics describe this step differently, so check it with the Riga building authority before the work.
The spike well's pipes must have no connection to the house's plumbing if the house is on the network. This is set by the same binding regulations No. 17. More: spike well for garden watering.
Sources: Rīgas ūdens, contract performance report for 2025 (Bišumuiža) and EU fund co-financed projects (stage 4 “Katlakalns”); Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17, points 5 and 63.6; Riga City Council binding regulations No. 67 (lost force 01.04.2026); LV portāls on the changed co-financing conditions for Bieriņi, Pleskodāle, Katlakalns, Bišumuiža and Bolderāja; the Rīgas ūdens co-financing page; the law “On Subterranean Depths”, point 2 of the first paragraph of Section 11; LBN 222-15, point 64; Cabinet Regulation No. 500 (General Construction Regulations), Annex 1; Cabinet Regulation No. 253, point 6², sub-point 1. Checked 03.11.2026.
What we do in Bišumuiža
- Spike well in Bišumuiža: from €350, usually €350–650; pump separate.
- Borehole in Bišumuiža: drilling from €65/m, a borehole about 30 m deep from €2,000; for houses without the network and for businesses.
- Well cleaning: from €150, with disinfection.
- Water supply system for a private house: from the source to the tap, including a rebuild when the house switches to city water.
- Water testing: basic from €35, full from €95.
If you will no longer use the borehole after connecting, it is decommissioned and a report is drawn up; we price it after hearing the situation: borehole decommissioning.
Neighbouring areas in the south of the left bank
Parts of the same stage 4 area are in Katlakalns and Ziepniekkalns; Torņakalns and Krasta rajons are also nearby. All neighbourhoods: Riga.