Cost of Borehole Drilling in Kitui, Makueni Machakos, Nairobi, Nakuru

The cost of constructing a borehole in Kitui, Makueni Machakos, Nairobi and Nakuru depends on various factors but a rough estimate is Ksh 500,000 to Ksh 5 million. Among the 5 towns Nakuru is the cheapest followed by Nairobi; Kitui is the most expensive because the depth of water is high. In this town the cost of drilling a well can go as high as Ksh5 million.

Before a borehole is drilled, the company involved in the exercise must conduct a site visit.The following is assessed:

• A) Assessment of hydro-geological conditions at the sites and their immediate vicinity by analysing geological data and borehole records to map important indicators of geological and hydro-geological conditions, structural weakness zones (lineation), rainfall, catchments conditions and boundaries. Soils and vegetation. On the basis of this analysis combined with all other relevant available data a pre-selection of sites for detailed geophysical investigations will be made.

• B) Hydro-geological fieldwork; local conditions will be inspected and observations made through mapping of existing boreholes, shallow wells, drainage system and seepage zones if any;

• C) Geology; The geology is one of the key controls to aquifer occurrence and some deductions on the basis of bedrock mineralogy, petrology and structure will assist in the interpretation of the geophysical surveys

• D) Geophysical fieldwork will focus on sites selected from the reconnaissance survey, initially traverses by means of resistivity profiling will be carried out at promising sites where fault zones or deep weathering are suspected; resistivity soundings will be used to verify observed anomalies, determine depth of weathering and the Lithological nature of the underlying formations

Based on the above assessment, the company will then send a quotation to a client. It’s from previous quotations that we have analyzed the average cost of constructing a borehole in the five major towns and presented the result as follows:

In Kenya the cheapest town to drill a borehole is Kisii where it costs Ksh500,000 to Ksh1.2 million. In the first place, boreholes are not much needed in the town because it rains almost daily.From Kisii,then move to Bomet,Eldoret,Kericho and Narok where borehole drilling are also relatively cheap.