Wells, old boreholes and garden spike wells in Iļģuciems - detached houses and factories on the city water main

Water in Iļģuciems: the network is there, the old sources remain

Iļģuciems is a large residential neighbourhood in Pārdaugava with an industrial history: Soviet-era blocks of flats, pockets of pre-war housing, detached houses and industrial sites between Daugavgrīvas iela and Buļļu iela. In the 2025 report of Rīgas ūdens, Iļģuciems is not named among the neighbourhoods where services are only partly available, and we found no individual streets there without the network.

The neighbourhood is on the left bank of the Daugava. Rīgas ūdens states that most left-bank consumers receive Daugava surface water, treated at the “Daugava” station by settling, filtration and ozonation. This describes the city network as a whole, not a particular building. If there is a well or borehole of your own in the yard, its water is quite different, and only a water test can show what it is like.

An old borehole without a passport: how to put it in order

The law “On Subterranean Depths” allows groundwater to be used only if the water abstraction borehole passport has been approved by the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Centre (LVĢMC). On a company site or in the yard of an old property, it is not always known whether the borehole ever had a passport. An infographic from the State Environmental Service (VVD) on historic boreholes without a passport describes how to put this in order.

1. Check the archive LVĢMC offers to restore a passport from the data of the State Geological Fund and to issue certified copies of existing passports. If the borehole is in the fund, the route is shorter.
2. Survey If there is no data, a company with a VVD licence carries out a hydrogeological survey: depth, construction, water level, test pumping and a water test in an accredited laboratory.
3. Passport After the survey, the borehole passport is prepared and submitted to LVĢMC for approval; the fee is €115.34, the deadline 10 working days.

Before the survey, we check whether the borehole is worth restoring at all: whether an old pump is stuck in it, whether the pipes have rusted through and whether the borehole gives water. If it gives sand or little water, borehole cleaning from €400 or borehole repair is possible.

If the borehole will no longer be used: decommissioning

For a factory that has switched to city water, or a detached house after connection, the old borehole becomes redundant. An unused borehole is a route by which surface dirt can reach deeper aquifers, so Cabinet Regulation No. 696 on subsoil licences requires the borehole user to mothball or decommission it, and a report is drawn up on the decommissioning, with a copy going to the State Geological Fund.

Decommissioning is a type of subsoil use for which the contractor applies for a VVD licence (state fee €35.57). The regulations do not say clearly whether a licence is also needed for a shallow borehole up to 20 m, so we check this with VVD in each case. We price the plugging after hearing the situation: it depends on the borehole depth and diameter, what has to be pulled out of the borehole, and the plugging material. More: borehole decommissioning.

An old dug well by a detached house

If the yard of a detached house has a dug well (concrete-ring well) that has not been cleaned for years, first decide what you need it for. If you want to use the well for watering, cleaning and disinfection are enough. If you want to drink from it, a full water test is also needed after cleaning.

• Well cleaning in Iļģuciems: from €150, pumping out, cleaning the walls and bottom, disinfection.
• Well deepening: from €150, if the well runs dry in summer.
• Well water testing: basic from €35, full with microbiology from €95.

If the well is no longer needed, do not simply fill it with rubble. A dug well is a first-group engineering structure, and for demolishing it Cabinet Regulation No. 253 requires a construction notice at the municipal building authority (būvvalde); check this before the work.

A garden spike well for a house on city water

Many detached houses in Iļģuciems get drinking water from the network, but for garden watering a spike well can be installed from €350 with its own pump. It has to be installed as a separate system: Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17 forbid connecting the pipes of a local source to the city water main. Near busy streets and industrial sites, we place the spike well further from the roadway and from places where rainwater runs off. More: spike well for garden watering.

Nearby neighbourhoods

Next to Iļģuciems are Dzirciems, Spilve, Voleri and Bolderāja; in Spilve and Bolderāja, your own source is needed more often. All neighbourhoods: Riga.