Gillitts sits on the upper highway plateau, where a cap of Natal Group sandstone typically rests on far older granite and gneiss. Holes usually pass through red-brown weathered soil, then sandstone, and may continue into the crystalline basement. Water tends to sit deep on this high ground and arrives through fractures rather than at a predictable level.
Much of Gillitts still feels semi-rural, with big treed stands, long driveways and homes set well back from the road. Many properties run on septic tanks and soakaways rather than sewer, and older plots often have outbuildings, paddocks or orchards. That space helps with rig placement, but setbacks from the soakaway shape where the hole can go.
What Is Under Gillitts
| Formation | Where it sits | What it means for drilling |
|---|---|---|
| Natal Group sandstone | Caps the higher ground through Gillitts and toward Kloof | Hard, quartz-rich rock that drills slowly. It can carry water along bedding planes and joints, and that water is usually soft. |
| Natal Metamorphic Province granite and gneiss | The basement beneath the sandstone, closer to surface toward the western edge | Very old crystalline rock with low typical yields unless the hole cuts an open fracture. Extra depth alone does not guarantee water. |
| Weathered soil and dolerite | Red-brown clayey cover on most stands, with dolerite intrusions in places | The weathered layer is cased off. Dolerite contacts, where present, are worth looking for during a survey. |
Tell us your Gillitts address, roughly how big the stand is and whether you are on septic, and we will send an itemised quote.
Get a Gillitts Borehole QuoteWhat That Means for Your Borehole
- Expect a deeper hole than on the coast because the water table on the plateau usually sits further down and the rig may need to chase fractures.
- Septic layout comes first since the hole must sit well away from soakaways and conservancy tanks to protect water quality.
- Plan around storage as modest fracture yields suit a pump filling tanks slowly over the day rather than direct high draw.
Where We Work Around Gillitts
- Gillitts village and Gillitts Road
- Emberton
- Winston Park edge
- St Helier Road area
- Kloof border
- Hillcrest boundary
- Old Main Road between Kloof and Hillcrest
What to Watch For Here
Soakaways and old septic systems are everywhere. Many Gillitts homes were never connected to sewer, and older soakaways are not always where the plans show them. A borehole too close to one risks bacterial and nitrate contamination. We ask owners to locate tanks and drains before the survey, and a laboratory test after drilling is a sensible check before anyone drinks the water.
Big stands can still have awkward access. Long gravel driveways, steep banks, mature indigenous trees and narrow gates are common here. A truck-mounted rig needs firm ground and a clear path, and wet summer months can leave lawns and tracks too soft. Agreeing the route, and any temporary removal of fencing, early on avoids damage and delays.
What the Water Is Used For
- Watering large indigenous gardens and lawns on semi-rural Gillitts stands
- Filling horse troughs and washing down stables on paddock properties
- Keeping a household running when upper highway mains supply cuts out
- Topping up swimming pools after the drier winter months
- Supplying orchards, vegetable beds and tunnels on bigger plots
Wellpoint or Borehole?
Rarely. Gillitts lacks the shallow sandy aquifer that makes driven points work at the coast. The soil is clayey weathered rock and the water table is usually well below what a suction pump can lift. A narrow strip of alluvium beside a stream might be an exception, but for most stands a drilled borehole is the honest answer.
Approval and Abstraction
Gillitts falls under eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. Municipal requirements differ across KwaZulu-Natal. eThekwini is reported to require a borehole to be registered with the municipality once drilling is complete, and its Water By-law prohibits any connection between a borehole system and the municipal supply unless backflow is prevented. Msunduzi, KwaDukuza and Umdoni set their own requirements, so confirm the current position with the municipality before the rig arrives. Separately, the National Water Act governs how much you may abstract: reasonable domestic use generally falls under Schedule 1, and in 2026 the Department of Water and Sanitation confirmed that households using borehole water for reasonable, non-commercial domestic purposes do not need to register nationally. Commercial, agricultural and larger abstraction may need registration or a water use authorisation, and draft national groundwater regulations published for comment in December 2025 may add obligations once finalised. Rules change, so confirm the current position before drilling.
Related Services
For the drilling process itself, the geology across the wider area and how a quote is put together, see Borehole Drilling Durban.
Nearby Areas
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 | R550 - R1,300 /m | Deeper water tables on the ridges and hard sandstone or granite-gneiss push holes deeper and slower, which lifts the per-metre end. |
| uPVC casing, installed, per metre | R400 - R700 /m | Weathered sandstone and decomposed granite near surface have to be cased; the thickness varies sharply across a single property. |
| Mobilisation and site establishment | R3,000 - R10,000 | Long driveways, steep stands and distance up the M13 corridor move this; a site visit settles it. |
| 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 - R210,000+ | 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 KwaZulu-Natal ranging from about R320/m to R1,500/m, a spread of more than four 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.
Gillitts Borehole FAQs
Will my septic tank stop me drilling in Gillitts?
Not usually, but it decides where the hole goes. The borehole should sit upslope and well away from the tank, the soakaway and any old drain lines, so that effluent cannot travel along fractures to the water. On a large stand there is normally room to achieve a sensible separation.
If the drain layout is unknown, it pays to find it before drilling. Once the hole is complete, a bacteriological and nitrate test confirms whether the water is fit to drink.
Why are upper highway boreholes often deeper than coastal ones?
Gillitts is high ground, and groundwater drains away from ridges toward the valleys, so the water table typically sits deeper than near the sea. On top of that, sandstone and granite only hold water in fractures, and the rig sometimes has to go further to intersect one that flows.
Regional mapping puts water levels across greater Durban at around 12 to 25 m below surface, with ridges toward the deeper side. Treat that as a general guide, not a promise for any one stand, and expect the hole itself to go well beyond the water level.
Can a Gillitts borehole run on solar?
Yes, and it is a popular choice here because power interruptions and water outages often arrive together. A solar pump fills a tank during daylight, and a small pressure pump or gravity then feeds the house or garden from that storage.
Sizing depends on the tested yield, the pump setting depth and the head to the tank, so the panel array is designed after the yield test, not before. Battery backup is optional rather than essential.
Does frost affect boreholes in Gillitts?
Occasionally. The upper highway is higher and cooler than the coast and can see light frost on still winter nights. Exposed pipework, pressure switches and small-bore lines at the headworks are the parts at risk, not the borehole itself.
Burying supply lines, lagging exposed fittings and housing the controller in a ventilated box deals with it at little extra cost. Draining an outdoor tap line before a cold snap also helps.
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