For houses in streets where services are not fully available, we also install a spike well or a borehole for the whole house. A spike well costs from €350, and we choose filters after a water test.
Zasulauks: city water and your own sources
Zasulauks is a Pārdaugava residential and railway neighbourhood between Āgenskalns and Imanta. It has pre-war wooden and masonry buildings, detached houses, apartment blocks, and railway and commercial areas. Most buildings take water from the city network, but detached houses with a garden often have their own source for watering.
In the 2025 contract performance report of Rīgas ūdens (Riga's water utility), Zasulauks is listed among the neighbourhoods where services are unavailable or only partly available in certain areas or streets. The report does not name the streets or distinguish water mains from sewers. If your house has no connection, start with the Rīgas ūdens “Service availability” form, and then we will compare a connection with your own source.
Source: Rīgas ūdens contract performance report for 2025, approved 23.03.2026 (rigasudens.lv). Checked 03.11.2026.
Where the water comes from on the left bank of the Daugava
Zasulauks is on the left bank of the Daugava. Rīgas ūdens writes that most consumers on the left bank receive surface water from the Daugava, taken from the Riga hydroelectric power plant reservoir and treated at the “Daugava” plant with reagents, settling, sand and anthracite filters and ozone disinfection. Rīgas ūdens does not publish which source supplies a particular neighbourhood or street.
Rīgas ūdens publishes only city averages: in 2025 iron averaged 0.11 mg/l (limit value 0.20 mg/l), manganese 0.02 mg/l, hardness 1.82 mmol/l. So whole-house iron removal is not needed for city water. If your tap water has a smell or taste you do not like, the solution is a filter at one tap, not for the whole house.
Sources: Rīgas ūdens, “Water abstraction” (rigasudens.lv/lv/udens-ieguve); Rīgas ūdens average water quality values for 2025 (rigasudens.lv, PDF “RŪ mājas lapai 2025”). The bank is our geographical indication, not a Rīgas ūdens measurement for the neighbourhood. Checked 03.11.2026.
A watering spike well at a house with a city water main
You pay for city water for the garden by the meter, so a watering spike well is one of the best-value jobs at Zasulauks detached houses. For garden water, purity matters less; what matters more is how much the spike well delivers on a dry summer evening.
- Location We choose a spot with no city service pipe, cables or sewer underground, and where electricity can be run to the pump.
- Spike well We drive or drill the spike well down to the water-bearing sand and pump it until the water runs clear.
- Pump For watering, a surface pump works, or a pump station with a pressure switch if you connect automatic watering.
- Separation The garden taps fed by the spike well stay completely separate from the house plumbing, as required by Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17.
- Winter In autumn we drain the pump and pipes or bring the pump somewhere warm.
If the spike well water contains a lot of iron, rust stains are left on paving and the facade; for an irrigation system a mechanical filter is enough. No licence from the State Environmental Service (VVD) is needed if the spike well is no deeper than 20 m and no more than 10 m³ is taken per day. More: spike well for garden watering.
Sources: Riga City Council binding regulations No. 17, point 63.6 (likumi.lv/ta/id/296134); the law “On Subterranean Depths”, point 2 of the first part of Section 11 (likumi.lv/ta/id/40249); LBN 222-15, point 64: a driven well is a water abstraction borehole (likumi.lv/ta/id/274989); Cabinet Regulation No. 253 (engineering structures), sub-point 1 of point 6.²: explanatory memorandum for a new first-group engineering structure, medium confidence (likumi.lv/ta/id/291197). Checked 03.11.2026.
Filters in a pre-war building or a detached house
A tap sample shows not only the city water but also what the building's internal pipes add to it. So in an old building we recommend a test from the tap you drink from, and only then choosing a filter.
- A mechanical filter at the inlet: holds back sand and rust particles that come with the water after work on the network or the house pipes.
- An activated carbon filter: for smell and taste, at the kitchen tap or for the whole house.
- A reverse osmosis filter under the sink: for drinking water and cooking, from €250.
- A water softener from €600: only if limescale in the kettle and water heater really bothers you.
For a house with its own spike well or borehole the filter chain is different, because iron and manganese often have to be dealt with there: water treatment and water filter maintenance.
Work and prices in Zasulauks
- Spike well in Zasulauks: from €350, usually €350–650, pump extra.
- Water treatment in Zasulauks: reverse osmosis from €250, iron removal or a water softener from €600.
- Water testing: from €35, with microbiology from €95.
- Water pumps for watering and the house: submersible pump installation from €200.
- A borehole for a house without a connection: from €65/m.
Access is from the Kalnciema iela and Jūrmalas gatve side. There is no call-out fee in Riga. All prices: prices.