Home / Borehole water testing
Borehole water testing: is your water safe to drink?
By BoreholePro. Updated 12 October 2026.
Borehole water is not treated, so it is only safe to drink once a lab test says so. In government tests on record, the most common problems are nitrate, salt and fluoride, and in some areas iron and manganese. A household test costs R800 to R2,500. If it fails, a filter matched to the result costs R5,000 to R15,000.
- Lab test
- R800–R2,500
- Government tests on record
- 8,756
- Limpopo tests over the nitrate limit
- 40%
- Filter if it fails
- R5,000–R15,000
Is borehole water safe to drink?
Sometimes, but you can’t tell by looking. Nitrate and fluoride have no colour, smell or taste, and germs from a nearby septic tank or kraal can get into a borehole that was clean last year. Clear, cold water from deep underground is often good, but only a test tells you. Test when the borehole is new, again if the water changes, and every year or two if the family drinks it.
What a borehole water test checks, and the limits
A standard drinking-water test measures these against the South African standard for drinking water, SANS 241:
| What | Why it matters | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| E. coli | Germs from sewage or animals. Can make people sick quickly. | None in 100 ml |
| Nitrate (as N) | From farming and pit toilets. A risk for babies. | 11 mg/l |
| Nitrite (as N) | Same sources as nitrate, more harmful. | 0.9 mg/l |
| Fluoride | Stains teeth and, over years, weakens bones. | 1.5 mg/l |
| Salt (electrical conductivity) | Tastes salty, scales up kettles, geysers and pipes. | 170 mS/m |
| Total dissolved solids | Everything dissolved in the water, a second measure of saltiness. | 1,200 mg/l |
| Iron | Stains basins, laundry and paving brown. Health limit 2 mg/l. | 0.3 mg/l for taste and stains |
| Manganese | Stains black and tastes metallic. Health limit 0.4 mg/l. | 0.1 mg/l for taste and stains |
| pH | Very acidic or alkaline water damages pipes and fittings. | 5 to 9.7 |
What government tests found, province by province
Share of government-tested boreholes over each limit. Where there are too few recent tests to give a fair percentage, the table says so.
| Province | Nitrate | Fluoride | Salt | Iron | Manganese |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gauteng | Too few tests | ||||
| Limpopo | 40% | 11% | 19% | 0% | 0% |
| KwaZulu-Natal | – | – | – | 2% | 4% |
| Western Cape | – | 3% | 36% | 3% | 27% |
| Eastern Cape | Too few tests | ||||
| Mpumalanga | 17% | 4% | 20% | – | – |
| North West | Too few tests | ||||
| Free State | Too few tests | ||||
| Northern Cape | Too few tests |
“–” means fewer than 30 tests measured that item. Limpopo’s figures include older results back to the 1960s; other provinces are mostly 2025 results.
What are the disadvantages of borehole water?
- It isn’t treated, so germs, nitrate, fluoride or salt can be in it without you knowing.
- Hard or iron-rich water stains fittings and scales up geysers and kettles.
- The pump needs power, so without a tank or solar pump you lose water in load-shedding.
- The flow can drop in a drought.
All four have fixes: a test, a filter where needed, a tank and a regular service.
How to take a borehole water sample
- Get the bottle from the lab. Use their sterile bottle for the germ test; a used cooldrink bottle gives a wrong result.
- Run the water first. Open the tap nearest the borehole, before any filter, and let it run for a few minutes.
- Fill without touching. Don’t touch the inside of the cap or bottle, and fill to the line.
- Keep it cold and deliver it the same day. Germ tests need the sample at the lab within about a day.
Or ask us: we take the sample when the borehole is finished and send it to a lab, and the result tells you whether you need a filter.
Questions people ask
How much does it cost to test borehole water?
R800 to R2,500 for a household drinking-water test, depending on how many items the lab measures.
What are the disadvantages of borehole water?
It isn’t treated, it can carry nitrate, fluoride, salt, iron or germs, it needs power to pump, and the flow can drop in a drought. A test, a filter where needed and a tank deal with all four.
How often should borehole water be tested?
When the borehole is new, whenever the water changes colour, smell or taste, and every year or two if the household drinks it.
How do I purify borehole water?
Test it first, then treat what the test finds: a UV steriliser for germs, an oxidising filter for iron and manganese, and reverse osmosis for nitrate, fluoride or salt. See borehole water filtration.
Related
Where these numbers come from
- Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS): National Groundwater Archive, GRIP borehole records, groundwater-level monitoring and water-quality results supplied to us by DWS GeoRequests, September and October 2026
- SANS 241-1:2015 Drinking water, Part 1: Microbiological, physical, aesthetic and chemical determinands (South African Bureau of Standards)
Get a price for your borehole
Type your address and see the price line by line, with the water records around your plot. A site visit confirms the spot, the depth and the final price before any drilling starts.