Borehole drilling in Tzaneen
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Home / Tzaneen
A home borehole in Tzaneen 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 Tzaneen, the Department of Water and Sanitation's monitoring boreholes find water at a median of 10 m below the ground, and the boreholes drilled around the town go a median of 60 m deep.
What stands out about boreholes in Tzaneen?
Tzaneen has the cleanest groundwater of the 17 Limpopo towns in our water quality table: 3% or less of the sites the Department tested were over any drinking-water limit. The catch is finding it. About 1 in 5 boreholes recorded within 15 km came out dry, the worst odds of the four towns, and tested boreholes give a typical 700 litres an hour, the lowest. A siting survey before drilling is money well spent here.
How much does borehole drilling cost in Tzaneen?
Drilling alone costs R290 to R300 per metre in Limpopo; the nearest published list is in Polokwane, at 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 Tzaneen?
7 Department of Water and Sanitation monitoring boreholes lie within 30 km of Tzaneen. At their latest readings (2024 to 2025), water stood between 8.9 m and 34.3 m below the ground, with a median of 10 m. 6 of the 7 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 108 boreholes with a drilled depth within 15 km of Tzaneen. Half of them were drilled between 42 m and 81 m, with a median of 60 m. At about 60 m, a complete home borehole costs around R46,490 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 Tzaneen?
Of the 138 boreholes the GRIP database records within 15 km of Tzaneen, 30 are recorded as dry: about 1 in 5. 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 Tzaneen give?
62 boreholes within 15 km of Tzaneen have a tested safe pumping rate in the GRIP database. The typical one gives about 700 litres an hour. The Department's hydrogeological map puts the town in a zone where most boreholes yield 0.5 to 2 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 Tzaneen safe to drink?
The Department of Water and Sanitation has tested water at 32 sites within 20 km of Tzaneen. At the latest test at each site, 3% were over the drinking-water limit for nitrate, 3% over the limit for fluoride and 0% salty enough to taste. Half of those tests are from 1997 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 Tzaneen?
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 Tzaneen do we cover?
We take quote requests for Tzaneen and the farms and plots around it, including Letsitele, Haenertsburg and Modjadjiskloof, and for Letsitele, Nkowankowa, Haenertsburg and Modjadjiskloof. 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 Tzaneen?
On drillers' published price lists across Limpopo, a complete home borehole in Tzaneen 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 Tzaneen?
In the Department of Water and Sanitation GRIP database, half the boreholes within 15 km of Tzaneen were drilled between 42 m and 81 m deep, with a median of 60 m. Water stands at a median of 10 m below the ground at nearby monitoring boreholes.
What are the chances of a dry borehole in Tzaneen?
30 of the 138 boreholes recorded within 15 km of Tzaneen are recorded as dry, about 1 in 5. Dry holes are under-recorded, so the real odds can be higher.
Is borehole water in Tzaneen safe to drink?
Not always. Of 32 sites the Department of Water and Sanitation has tested within 20 km of Tzaneen, 3% were over the nitrate limit and 3% 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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