Borehole drilling in Polokwane
Type your street, farm or suburb near Polokwane for the price on your plot.
Home / Polokwane
A home borehole in Polokwane costs about R36,690 for a 40 m hole and R46,490 for a 60 m hole, drilled, cased and pumping into a 5,000-litre tank, on drillers' published price lists across Limpopo (R290 to R300 a metre, checked 23 September 2026). Around Polokwane, the Department of Water and Sanitation's monitoring boreholes find water at a median of 11.3 m below the ground, and the boreholes drilled around the town go a median of 73 m deep.
What stands out about boreholes in Polokwane?
Polokwane has the strongest boreholes of the four big Limpopo towns on this site. Tested boreholes within 10 km give a typical 3,100 litres an hour, and the Department of Water and Sanitation's map puts the city in its highest yield class. The catch is depth: holes around the city go a median of 73 m, the deepest of the four, and about 1 in 9 recorded holes came out dry. Water quality around the city is mostly good, with 14% of tested sites over the nitrate limit and almost none over fluoride.
How much does borehole drilling cost in Polokwane?
Drilling alone costs R290 to R300 per metre in Limpopo; a Polokwane driller publishes R295 a metre. The totals below add up every line on a Limpopo driller's published list for a borehole that pumps into a tank at ground level: drilling, steel starter casing, PVC casing, a pump sized to the depth, a 5,000-litre tank and a lockable cover.
| Depth | Drilling | Casing | Pump | Total with tank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 m | R11,800 | R7,300 | R8,800 | R36,690 |
| 60 m | R17,700 | R10,200 | R9,800 | R46,490 |
| 80 m | R23,600 | R13,100 | R11,500 | R56,990 |
Raising the tank on a 3.5 m steel stand, so the house gets pressure without a second pump, adds R21,800 on the same list (R18,000 for the stand and R3,800 to install it). Transport, a siting survey and a yield test are priced separately, so ask for them in writing. The Limpopo borehole price guide breaks down every line.
How deep is the water in Polokwane?
23 Department of Water and Sanitation monitoring boreholes lie within 30 km of Polokwane. At their latest readings (2021 to 2026), water stood between 2.3 m and 45.5 m below the ground, with a median of 11.3 m. 22 of the 23 were read in 2025 or 2026.
How deep your hole goes matters more for the price than the water level does. The Department of Water and Sanitation's GRIP database records 142 boreholes with a drilled depth within 10 km of Polokwane. Half of them were drilled between 54 m and 102 m, with a median of 73 m. At about 70 m, a complete home borehole costs around R52,290 on the lists above. Type your address into the tool above for the depth of the boreholes nearest your plot, which can differ a lot from the town-wide figure.
What are the chances of a dry borehole in Polokwane?
Of the 317 boreholes the GRIP database records within 10 km of Polokwane, 36 are recorded as dry: about 1 in 9. Across Limpopo the figure is about 1 in 9. Dry holes are under-recorded, so the real odds can be higher. A siting survey before drilling improves your chances, and your driller's quote should say what you pay if the hole is dry.
How much water will a borehole in Polokwane give?
90 boreholes within 10 km of Polokwane have a tested safe pumping rate in the GRIP database. The typical one gives about 3,100 litres an hour. The Department's hydrogeological map puts the town in a zone where most boreholes yield more than 5 litres a second, in intergranular and fractured rock: water sits in weathered rock and in cracks in the hard rock below it. A household uses roughly 500 to 1,000 litres a day, so even a weak borehole can run a home. Irrigation needs far more, so ask for a yield test before you plan on it.
Is borehole water in Polokwane safe to drink?
The Department of Water and Sanitation has tested water at 70 sites within 20 km of Polokwane. At the latest test at each site, 14% were over the drinking-water limit for nitrate, 1% over the limit for fluoride and 6% salty enough to taste. Half of those tests are from 1985 or earlier, and they lean towards villages and monitoring points, so they can't tell you what your own borehole will give. They are a good reason to have the water tested once it is drilled. See borehole water quality across Limpopo for the town-by-town results.
Do you need to register a borehole in Polokwane?
Not for your home. Water for household use, a garden that isn't commercial and a few animals falls under Schedule 1 of the National Water Act, which needs no licence or registration. Farms and businesses that use borehole water commercially must register it with the Department of Water and Sanitation. The borehole registration guide explains who must register and what the 2026 registration drive means.
Which areas around Polokwane do we cover?
We take quote requests for Polokwane and its suburbs, from Bendor, Fauna Park and Flora Park to Seshego and the smallholdings around the city, and for Seshego, Mankweng and the plots along the roads out of the city. We are not a drilling company: we pass your request to a Limpopo driller who can quote on your plot.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to drill a borehole in Polokwane?
On drillers' published price lists across Limpopo, a complete home borehole in Polokwane costs about R36,690 at 40 m and R46,490 at 60 m, drilled, cased and pumping into a 5,000-litre tank (checked 23 September 2026). Drilling alone is R290 to R300 a metre.
How deep are boreholes in Polokwane?
In the Department of Water and Sanitation GRIP database, half the boreholes within 10 km of Polokwane were drilled between 54 m and 102 m deep, with a median of 73 m. Water stands at a median of 11.3 m below the ground at nearby monitoring boreholes.
What are the chances of a dry borehole in Polokwane?
36 of the 317 boreholes recorded within 10 km of Polokwane are recorded as dry, about 1 in 9. Dry holes are under-recorded, so the real odds can be higher.
Is borehole water in Polokwane safe to drink?
Not always. Of 70 sites the Department of Water and Sanitation has tested within 20 km of Polokwane, 14% were over the nitrate limit and 1% over the fluoride limit at their latest test. Have your water tested against SANS 241 once the borehole is drilled.
Basis for the figures on this page
- Prices: the published price lists of a variety of drillers across Limpopo, checked 23 September 2026. VAT is not stated on the lists. These are list prices, not quotes from a site visit.
- Water levels: Department of Water and Sanitation groundwater level monitoring data to June 2026, supplied on request on 23 September 2026. Latest reading at each monitoring borehole within 30 km of the town centre.
- Water quality: Department of Water and Sanitation groundwater chemistry data for Limpopo, supplied on request on 23 September 2026. Latest sample per site within 20 km of the town centre, against the SANS 241 drinking-water limits (nitrate 11 mg/l as N, fluoride 1.5 mg/l, electrical conductivity 170 mS/m).
- Drilled depth, dry holes and tested pumping rates: Department of Water and Sanitation GRIP (Groundwater Resource Information Project) database for Limpopo, 25,728 borehole records, supplied on request in September 2026. Area counts only; no individual borehole is published.
- Borehole yield class: Department of Water and Sanitation 1:500 000 hydrogeological maps 2127 Messina (2002), 2326 Polokwane (2003) and 2330 Phalaborwa (1999), at the town centre.
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