Why Everyone in Gauteng Is Drilling Boreholes (And Who's Paying the Price)

Walk down any street in Sandton, Greenside, or Pretoria East these days, and you're likely to see one thing: a drilling rig. Boreholes are mushrooming across Gauteng's suburbs at an unprecedented rate. In Emmarentia, residents report four boreholes on a single street. In Greenside, homeowners have created informal databases to share water with neighbours during cuts [citation:10].

South Africans are drilling between 80,000 to 100,000 boreholes annually according to the Department of Water and Sanitation—yet only 282,630 are actually registered nationally [citation:7]. The message is clear: after years of loadshedding taught us to go solar, the water crisis is teaching us to go underground. But this "drill, baby, drill" mentality comes with hidden costs—and someone is going to pay.

The Crisis That Drove Us Here

Gauteng's water situation is dire. Rand Water has warned of potential system collapse. In October 2024, they reported that storage levels were dropping at alarming rates, with municipalities failing to implement basic recommendations: reduce water losses, repair leaks, and address illegal connections [citation:4].

By early 2025, Johannesburg Water reported that 28 out of 61 reservoirs and towers were critically low or completely empty, affecting 350 areas [citation:4]. Residents in high-lying areas like Emmarentia have gone six or seven days without water. The result? Those who can afford it—between R50,000 and R120,000—are taking matters into their own hands [citation:10].

The Gautrain Wake-Up Call

Then came February 2025. Gautrain services between Rosebank and Park Station ground to a halt. The cause? An illegally drilled borehole on private property in Killarney caused water and soil to seep into the tunnel [citation:4]. Repairs are expected to cost over R1 million, and the Gautrain Management Agency is pursuing legal action against the body corporate responsible [citation:10].

"There is a significant lack of monitoring and regulation of groundwater usage, leading to a free-for-all scenario," warned Dr Ferrial Adam, executive director of WaterCAN [citation:7]. The City of Johannesburg has since vowed to arrest illegal drillers and confiscate equipment. But with only 28 days required for legal permit processing—and desperate homeowners refusing to wait—enforcement is struggling to keep up [citation:10].

The Water That Tastes Like Fish

While suburbs drill, other areas face a different nightmare. In Pretoria North, residents of Montana, Sinoville, and Doornpoort have spent months dealing with tap water that smells like a "fish pond" [citation:8]. The City of Tshwane eventually admitted to elevated levels of ammonia, nitrate, and manganese in treated water—imbalances that trigger algal activity and foul odours.

"They should tell you why that is happening," Adam said. "My feeling is that there's some kind of spillage somewhere" [citation:8]. For residents, the message is clear: municipal water can no longer be trusted.

The E. coli Fear

In Bekkersdal, the dispute turned toxic. Independent tests by WaterCAN between May and June 2025 revealed E. coli and other contaminants in tap water samples [citation:5]. Residents reported water that turns brown after cuts, or develops bubbles when stored overnight.

"When the water changes to a dark form, it means it's contaminated by E. coli or other particles—in simple terms, it might have traces of sewage," a WaterCAN representative explained [citation:5].

The Rand West Local Municipality denies the risk—its MMC even drank tap water on camera to prove safety. But residents remain wary, and WaterCAN has demanded a boil-water notice. For homeowners considering boreholes, the takeaway is stark: at least underground water, properly filtered, might be safer than what comes through the pipes.

The Tank Problem

Then there's the JoJo tank explosion. Water tank sales in Gauteng have grown in "double-digit range" since early 2023, with JoJo's best-sellers being 1,000-litre, 2,400-litre, and 5,250-litre tanks [citation:10]. But here's the catch: many residents connect these tanks to municipal supply.

"When there's water cuts and then the water comes back, the water first fills the tank," Adam explained. "If you are filling up the tank first at your house, that means that other people are affected... more people have less water, especially in the high-lying areas" [citation:10].

In Melville, residents banded together to buy communal tanks—a community-minded solution that inadvertently worsens the problem for those at the end of the line. It's a classic tragedy of the commons: individual resilience undermines collective supply.

The Aquifer Question

Water scientist Ayesha Laher warns that groundwater is a limited resource. "If you don't use it sustainably, you end up with a lot of associated potential risks. One would be that you drain the aquifer dry and then you have a hole in the bottom of the ground" [citation:10].

In Sandton, some boreholes have already run dry. Others are flowing again after rains, but the pattern is clear: when everyone drills, the water table drops. "You will only know when your borehole is dry," said Unisa associate professor Anja du Plessis [citation:10].

There are also safety risks. "You could drill a borehole and hit an acid mine drainage vein and it will bubble to the surface," Laher warned. Or worse—drill into dolomite and risk ground subsidence [citation:10].

The Cowboy Drillers

Du Plessis draws a sharp comparison with the solar boom. "It's almost like the solar situation where every single cowboy could put solar on and then you heard of people's houses burning down. The same cowboy attitude is unfolding with boreholes" [citation:10].

Homeowners are drilling without proper surveys, sometimes going past 120 metres in Craighall Park only to find minimal water yield. "That is a lot of money and the amount of water that they get from that is not even a lot" [citation:10].

Meanwhile, the city remains largely unaware. Johannesburg spokesperson Virgil James admitted the city cannot confirm increased drilling "unless we receive a sudden and notable increase in applications" [citation:10]. Most homeowners don't even know registration is required.

As one Greenside resident put it when asked about registration: "I was like, bugger them, they're not giving us the service, we have to look after ourselves" [citation:10].

What Happens Next?

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase 2—meant to bring additional water to Gauteng—started nine years late and won't be complete until 2028 [citation:7]. Until then, the province faces a supply gap.

The Department of Water and Sanitation admits that 36.8% of municipal water is lost to leakage—approaching 2 trillion litres annually [citation:6]. Fixing leaks would do more than any number of boreholes, but municipalities spend less than 1% of budgets on maintenance [citation:7].

President Ramaphosa acknowledged the crisis in his 2025 State of the Nation Address, confirming that the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency will be established within the year [citation:4]. But for residents facing no water tomorrow, government timelines offer little comfort.

The Responsible Path Forward

None of this means boreholes are bad. Properly planned, professionally drilled, and legally registered boreholes are a vital part of water resilience. They relieve pressure on municipal supply and provide genuine backup during outages.

But there's a difference between resilience and recklessness. A legal borehole requires:

• Written consent from the municipality under the City's Land Use Scheme [citation:10]
• Professional surveys to assess sustainable yield
• Registration in the National Groundwater Archive
• Proper filtration to ensure water is safe for its intended use

Homeowners who skip these steps risk drilling dry holes, damaging infrastructure, or facing legal action—as the Killarney body corporate now knows.

The Bottom Line

Gauteng's water crisis is real. It's getting worse. And it's driving thousands of residents to seek alternatives. But the solution isn't a free-for-all. It's professional, sustainable groundwater management paired with pressure on municipalities to fix the leaks and maintain the systems we already have.

Water scientist Ayesha Laher puts it simply: "Water is life. You can stay without electricity but you cannot stay without bathing for two days and flushing away your sewage" [citation:10].

For homeowners considering a borehole, the message is clear: do it right, or don't do it at all. The aquifer beneath our feet is a shared resource. What we take today determines what our children will have tomorrow.

Need a borehole assessment from qualified professionals who understand Gauteng's geology and regulations? Contact us for a consultation that prioritizes sustainability, legality, and real water security.