Green Point sits on the granite and Malmesbury contact at the foot of Signal Hill, with dense urban development throughout.
Modest yields and constrained access make this supplementary supply rather than a primary water source.
What Is Under Green Point
The formations below are what a rig actually meets on a Green Point property, and between them they govern the depth, the casing requirement and what the hole will realistically give you.
| Formation | Where it sits | What it means for drilling |
|---|---|---|
| Cape Granite Suite | The lower slopes and the well-known granite-shale contact along the seaboard | Water in the weathered mantle and in jointing. Depth to fresh rock changes quickly across a single stand. |
| Malmesbury Group shale | Intruded by the granite, exposed in places along the shore | A tight formation where water comes from fracture zones rather than the rock mass. Moderate yields at best. |
| Table Mountain Group sandstone | The mountain and buttresses above the suburbs | Hard fractured quartzite. Deeper, fracture-dependent, and the recharge for everything below it. |
Send your street and what the water is for, and get an itemised quote for Green Point.
Get a Green Point Borehole QuoteWhat That Means for Your Borehole
- Access is the first constraint, not the geology. Tight erven, steep driveways and shared walls rule out more positions here than ground conditions do.
- Saline intrusion is a real risk this close to the sea, so the sustainable rate matters more than the peak rate.
- Yields are typically modest. Storage paired with a moderate hole is the normal working answer on the seaboard.
Where We Work Around Green Point
- Green Point and the Waterfront approaches
- Mouille Point and the promenade
- Three Anchor Bay
- Signal Hill-facing upper streets
- Sectional title blocks near the stadium
- Older stands on Main Road
What to Watch For Here
Access constraints rule out more sites here than ground conditions do. Small erven, shared boundaries and limited street access are the binding constraints.
Salinity is worth checking on the sea-facing side, and abstraction should be modest enough not to make it worse.
What the Water Is Used For
- Irrigating established gardens and mature trees
- Topping up the pool, subject to what the analysis says
- Washing paving, vehicles and hard surfaces
- Standby supply when municipal water is interrupted
- Reducing a monthly municipal water bill
Wellpoint or Borehole?
Almost never. There is no meaningful sand aquifer under most of the seaboard, and hard rock close to surface leaves a driven point nothing to draw from.
Water Quality in Green Point
Proximity to the sea makes salinity the parameter to watch, and it can climb if a hole is pumped harder than the ground recharges. Otherwise the water off granite and sandstone here is typically soft and low in dissolved solids.
A water analysis is what turns that from a general expectation into a number for your specific hole, and treatment should be specified against the result rather than against the area's reputation.
Registration and Abstraction
Boreholes and wellpoints inside the City of Cape Town must be registered with the City. Separately, the National Water Act governs how much you may abstract: reasonable domestic use and small-scale garden watering generally fall under Schedule 1, while larger abstraction may require registration or a water use authorisation from the Department of Water and Sanitation. Requirements change, so confirm your position before drilling rather than after. Requirements change, so confirm your position before drilling.
Related Services
For the drilling process itself, the geology across the rest of the country and how a quote is put together, see Borehole Installers South Africa.
Borehole Prices in Green Point
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 | R600 - R1,400 /m | Hard rock and difficult access both push the rate up on the seaboard. |
| uPVC casing, installed, per metre | R400 - R750 /m | Casing the weathered zone is standard; the depth of it varies sharply with slope position. |
| Mobilisation and site establishment | R4,000 - R15,000 | 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 | R110,000 - R280,000+ | 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 - different 2026 guides quote per-metre drilling rates for the same province that differ by a factor of three - 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.
Green Point Borehole FAQs
What can a Green Point borehole realistically supply?
Irrigation for a courtyard or common-area garden and hard-surface washing, typically. Yields on this ground are modest and the erven are small.
As a supplement to municipal supply that can still be worthwhile, particularly for a scheme with real landscaping demand. As a replacement it is not realistic.
Is drilling noisy in a dense area like Green Point?
Percussion drilling is genuinely loud, and in a dense residential area that matters. Most drilling is completed within a day or two on a straightforward site.
Notifying neighbours and agreeing working hours in advance is worth doing. Some bodies corporate and the City impose restrictions on hours.
Can a drilling rig even get onto a Green Point property?
That is the right first question here, and the honest answer is sometimes not. A truck-mounted rig needs a route in and a working platform at the drilling point, and tight erven with steep access defeat both more often on the seaboard than anywhere else in the metro.
A site visit settles it before anything is quoted. Smaller rigs exist for constrained sites, but they change the cost and sometimes the achievable depth.
Will a borehole this close to the sea give salty water?
It can, and the risk rises with how hard the hole is pumped. Drawing down faster than the ground recharges pulls the saline interface toward the borehole.
Yield testing establishes a sustainable rate, and sizing the pump to that rather than to the hole's maximum is what protects the water quality over the long term.
NEED A BOREHOLE IN GREEN POINT?
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