Things You Need To Know Before Drilling Your Borehole In Zimbabwe

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Please feel free to leave a message on our WhatApp number or alternatively please call us and we will be able to help you straight away. If you would prefer, send us an email with your details and an outline of your enquiry and we will be pleased to come back to you.

We respond to all enquiries usually within 24 hours, but guarantee within 48 hours.

Our Contact Numbers Are:
Water Systems Sales: +263 77 389 8979.
Water Systems Sales: +263 71 961 3479.
Water Systems Sales: +263 78 977 9432.
Water Systems Sales: +263 71 884 5891.

Walking or driving through Harare and its environs, the sight of banners and posters of Borehole drillers posted or hanged on the wire mesh competing for space with remedial classes and Mallams advertising their service plague corners and highways, with some with a caption of "NO MORE WATER BILLS", "YOUR WATER CHEAP", "CHEAP BOREHOLE" and many more. 

The idea of getting a borehole drilled at your property might have been running through your mind but maybe you are not quite sure, it is important to understand a few things before you drilled your borehole and to which company should handle the project for you.

Here Are A Few Things To Know Before Drilling Your Borehole:


1. Location: If you call any serious company the first question they will ask you will be the location where the borehole will be drilled. The answer to this question will guide the answer to other subsequent questions. 

Why is this question so important to the contractor and you? The location will give the contractor or the agent the necessary information needed to know the soil formation of the location where the borehole will be drilled and upon the question of the location and the idea of the soil formation rest the answer to everything else.

2. Cost: It is common to be greeted by many homeowners or potential customers with the question of "How much will it cost to drill a borehole"... this is where the earlier question will now guide the contractor on how to charge. The soil formation of Greater Accra is generally hard rock apart from, few areas with loose rock and Mud (areas like Aplaku Hills, Gbawe, Sowutuom, Accra central, the right side of Oyarifa, Awoshie). If your area falls in between these areas of lose rock or Mud, the cost will be higher than those not in these areas.

3: Difference in Cost: You may ask, why the cost difference, are all the areas not in Accra or Greater Accra? Yes, but, when drilling at muddy areas the construction and materials used will generally be more. 

There are two types of construction practice in Zimbabwe, open construction and full construction (full construction also called full lining). Open construction is when the UPVC pipe (that's the blue pipes inserted into the borehole) inserted into the well will not get to the bottom of the well but it will be suspended or only reach the bedrock ( Bedrock is the hard, solid rock beneath surface materials such as topsoil, loose soil and gravel). The level of the bedrock differs from place to place, some bedrock will be at 10 meters, some at 30 meters, and some at 70 meters. Unlike muddy areas, the UPVC can not be hanged but it will have to be placed down to the bottom of the well to prevent caving in or collapsing of the borewell wall. 

So let's imagine a place like Amasaman with hard rock formation and bedrock at a level of 12 to 20 meters, will have 4 to 6.5 numbers of UPVC used in constructing the wall of the well, even when the well is 100 meter, because the bedrock is hard rock the probability of it caving in or collapsing is lean. Somewhere like Makola will use about 17 of the same pipe if the depth of the well is 50 meters because it will be a mud soil formation or lose rock and it will have to be fully constructed.
Another reason other than the pipe is also the grouting (cementing) and filtering. Muddy areas or location with loose rock will come with turbid water (brownish color or muddy water), to clear the dirty muddy, or brownish color water, they will have to pour sea gravels of about 2-10 micron into the well so that the dirty water can sieve through this gravel serving as a filter to get clear water. This gravel wouldn't be needed in areas with hard rock, though it comes with silt and sand but not brownish.
Things You Need To Know Before Drilling Your Borehole In Zimbabwe
 Things You Need To Know Before Drilling Your Borehole In Zimbabwe
Also, Muddy areas may require a specialized drilling machine made to handle muddy areas. Muddy areas require mud drilling machines with mud pumps, mud drilling takes more time and it may require special material like the lube to hold the walls of the well up from collapsing during the drilling process. All these contribute to the price difference withing Greater Accra and beyond.

4. Quantity: You may get water but not enough water - This may be your number one heartbreak, after spending close to 10, 000 cedis to get your borehole and still have to go back to the Zimbabwe water because the well is not giving you the water you hope to get. So brace yourself, your well may not produce enough water for you at the standard depth (standard depth is 100 meter) and unfortunately, there is little you can do to hold the drilling company responsible. The drilling company relies on the geophysical company to know where to drill after the survey two viable points will be picked as the prospective area to drill but the survey just couldn't tell what quantity of water you will get (at least that's what we have always been told by the geological company). There is a solution to this, which is hydrofracturing (that's opening up the path through which water flows into the well to create a bigger path for more water to flow in). Hydrofracturing is the injection of pressurized air and water into the well to crack the bedrock creating more channels or increasing the size of the waterway, up to 400 meters horizontally. Hydrofracturing does come at an additional cost if not covered in the initial cost.

5. Quality: Your most probably second heart brake will be the quality of the water. Most of the water quality in the Greater Accra Region will either be salty, acidic (low pH, that is lower than 6.5), contains iron, manganese, and hard. You may not be able to use your water if it is salty or acidic, though iron, manganese, and hard water are not advisable to be used without treatment you don't even dare to run your salty water or acidic water through your plumbing system, the presence of salt and low pH will either corrode your plumbing systems or scale buildup. You are also not advised to drink such water, it is not safe for drinking. So it is advisable to send your water to the lab after your borehole is done, by either tasking the contracted company to do that, or you sending it yourself to either Zimbabwe water lab or CSIR.

6. After Sale: After considering the cost, materials, quantity, and quality of your water, you need a dependable, always available contractor, someone you can always call when you are facing challenges, you don't want to have someone who works as the contractor, the pump installer, the electrician, the filter installer, the plumber. You cant rely on someone like that when the pressure becomes high on him, he will either be tosing you around. 

You need a company with differential roles, a company with a specific specialist, a plumber, an electrician, a driller, a geologist, engineers, and getting the contact of all these people and most importantly the General manager or chief operations manager. They can't all be at the site at the same time, they cant all be busy, someone will be available to sort you out when you need them.

We believe these six points should guide you on who you want to give your project to. You can always reach us for advice or even supervisory work on your project.


Water Systems Zimbabwe is looking forward to your call or WhatsApp Message.

Please feel free to leave a message on our WhatApp number or alternatively please call us and we will be able to help you straight away. If you would prefer, send us an email with your details and an outline of your enquiry and we will be pleased to come back to you.

We respond to all enquiries usually within 24 hours, but guarantee within 48 hours.

Our Contact Numbers Are:
Water Systems Sales: +263 77 389 8979.
Water Systems Sales: +263 71 961 3479.
Water Systems Sales: +263 78 977 9432.
Water Systems Sales: +263 71 884 5891.

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