Constantia Park sits on Pretoria Group rock in the south-east of the city, between the ridge ground to the north and the dolomite compartments to the south.
Yields here come from fractures and intrusive contacts rather than from the rock mass itself, which puts the weight on siting.
What Is Under Constantia Park
| Formation | Where it sits | What it means for drilling |
|---|---|---|
| Timeball Hill Formation shale and quartzite | The higher ground and low ridges through the southern suburbs | The shale drills readily; the interbedded quartzite bands are hard. Water is held in fractures and along bedding rather than spread through the rock. |
| Malmani dolomite beneath | The compartments below and to the south that feed the Fountains and Rietvlei springs | Where drilling reaches the dolomite, yields usually improve sharply. Depth to that contact is the largest single unknown in a quote on this ground. |
| Karoo outliers and surface deposits | Scattered through old pre-Karoo depressions across the ground south of the city | Tillite, sandstone and clay of variable thickness resting on the older rocks. They change how much casing a hole needs and are not visible from the surface. |
Send your street and what the water is for, and get an itemised quote for Constantia Park.
Get a Constantia Park Borehole QuoteWhat That Means for Your Borehole
- A survey earns its cost on this ground more clearly than on ground where the target depth is well established.
- Two neighbouring stands can need very different depths which is a function of the faulted contact rather than of workmanship.
- Casing requirements vary with the cover and Karoo material where present adds to it.
Where We Work Around Constantia Park
- Constantia Park and its extensions
- Wingate Park boundary
- Moreleta Park approaches
- Elardus Park side
- Erasmuskloof edge
- Established stands with mature gardens
- Complexes and cluster developments
What to Watch For Here
Diabase contacts are the productive structures. The shale under this ground is cut by diabase intrusions, and the fractured zone where an intrusion meets the shale is reliably the better target. Finding one is what a survey on this ground is actually doing, and it is a more useful objective than picking a depth.
Large established gardens drive the demand. Stands here are generous and the planting is mature, so the dry-season irrigation requirement is substantial. Systems sized around storage rather than around peak borehole flow tend to work out better.
What the Water Is Used For
- Irrigation over the long dry season before the summer rains
- Pool top-up, once the water has been tested for it
- Standby supply when the municipal mains go down
- Common areas across complexes and estate developments
- Lowering a water bill driven mostly by outdoor use
Wellpoint or Borehole?
Not viable across this ground. Rock sits close to surface over most of it and the water table is below the practical suction lift of a surface pump. A driven point has nothing to penetrate.
Registration and Abstraction
A completed borehole here should be registered with the City of Tshwane, and the responsibility for that sits with the property owner rather than with the driller. Separately, the National Water Act governs how much you may abstract: reasonable domestic use and small-scale gardening generally fall under Schedule 1, while larger, agricultural or commercial abstraction may require registration or a water use authorisation from the Department of Water and Sanitation. The position on domestic registration was being actively revised during 2026, so confirm your obligations before drilling rather than afterwards.
Because this is dolomitic ground there is a further layer. Development on dolomite land is governed by SANS 1936 and stability information is lodged with the Council for Geoscience, so the metro may require additional approvals before a rig is allowed on site. Establish that early, because it affects the programme rather than just the paperwork.
Related Services
For the drilling process itself, the geology across the wider metro and how a quote is put together, see Borehole Drilling Pretoria.
Borehole Prices in This Area
Drilling is charged per metre, so depth drives the total. The ranges below are framed for local ground conditions and access.
| Item | Indicative range | What moves it locally |
|---|---|---|
| Drilling, per metre | R500 - R1,200 /m | Depth to the dolomite contact is the variable. Shale drills quickly; quartzite bands and the dolomite below do not. |
| uPVC casing, installed, per metre | R400 - R700 /m | Weathered shale and any Karoo cover both have to be cased through, and neither thickness is known in advance. |
| Mobilisation and site establishment | R2,500 - R9,000 | Access and site conditions move this; a site visit settles it before quoting. |
| Water survey | R5,000 - R12,000 | Targets structure rather than depth. Worth most where yield is fracture-dependent. |
| Yield testing | R3,500 - R15,000 | Establishes the sustainable rate that pump selection depends on. |
| Pump, supplied and installed | R15,000 - R45,000 | Greater depth means more head, which means a larger pump and heavier cable. |
| Storage and booster | R12,000 - R35,000 | Needed wherever peak demand exceeds the borehole's sustainable rate. |
| Typical complete project | R70,000 - R200,000+ | Everything above, excluding treatment, which depends entirely on the water analysis. |
These are indicative ranges, not a quotation. They are compiled from published South African supplier and contractor pricing to give you a starting point for budgeting. They are not our rate card, and no figure here is a commitment.
Treat them as a broad guide only. Published borehole pricing in South Africa varies enormously - 2026 guides quote per-metre drilling rates for Gauteng ranging from under R300/m to R1,500/m, a spread of more than five to one - because depth, geology, access, specification, distance and fuel costs all move the number. Depth in particular is not known until the hole is finished. Figures generally exclude VAT unless noted, and change over time. Only an itemised written quote against your actual site means anything.
Constantia Park Borehole FAQs
What is a diabase dyke and why does it matter here?
It is a sheet of intrusive igneous rock that cut through the shale long after the shale was laid down. They are common across the Pretoria area.
They matter because fractures concentrate along the contact between the intrusion and the host rock, and that fractured zone is usually where the water is. The dyke rock itself, where fresh, yields very little.
How much water will a Constantia Park borehole give?
Modest to moderate is realistic on this ground, with better results where a hole intersects a good contact zone.
The number that matters is the tested sustainable yield, not the flow seen when the hole was first struck, which is often considerably higher and not repeatable.
Is storage necessary here?
Usually, yes. Irrigation demand arrives in a concentrated window and most boreholes on this ground deliver a steady moderate rate rather than a large burst.
A tank bridges that gap by accumulating overnight, which lets a modest borehole meet a demanding irrigation schedule.
Can I connect the borehole to the house plumbing?
It can be done, but it needs to be done properly, with no cross-connection to the municipal supply and with the water quality established first.
Backflow into the municipal system is the specific thing to avoid, and it is both a regulatory and a public health issue rather than a technicality.
DRILLING IN CONSTANTIA PARK?
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