What does it take to run a reliable water or wastewater plant in New Zealand in 2026? Ageing assets, tighter regulation and stretched teams mean that every remote pump station, chemical dosing skid and butterfly valve must work and keep working in some unforgiving conditions.
That’s where locally built Burkert control cabinets are earning their place on New Zealand sites says Pauline Boyd, marking and communications manager.
“From Kaipara pump stations to South Island treatment plants, we design and assemble stainless steel control cabinets dedicated to water and wastewater applications. Typical builds include pump control, remote butterfly valve operation on trunk mains, filter backwash control and chemical dosing, the everyday tasks that decide whether a plant runs smoothly or not,” says Boyd.
At the heart of its water cabinets are Burkert’s own pneumatic and analytical platforms. Modular manifolds and pilot valves provide compact, high-flow pneumatic distribution for field-mounted butterfly and ball valves. For plants that need more advanced monitoring and control, the Multicell Type 8619 transmitter/controller brings flow, pressure, level, pH and conductivity into one clean interface, ready to talk to a PLC or SCADA over industrial Ethernet.
For operators and maintenance teams, though, the hardware story starts much earlier, with the layout inside the door. Boyd explains that every Burkert cabinet is built with the person “fault-finding at 2am” in mind: clear segregation of power and pneumatics, labelled terminations, logical cable routing and accurate GA, electrical and pneumatic drawings supplied as standard. “A tidy panel is not a luxury; it is saved hours when the network is under pressure.”
Reliability in the field comes from details that are easy to overlook in a specification.
“Our cabinets use 316 stainless enclosures with appropriate IP ratings for exposed sites, robust air preparation ahead of the manifolds, and high-quality tubing and fittings sized for the run. Each cabinet is fully function-tested before it leaves our workshop, so when it arrives on site it is a plug-and-play asset rather than a box of parts that still needs engineering,” says Boyd.
Because cabinets are designed and built in New Zealand, lead times are short and designs are grounded in local conditions and standards. “We’re close enough to walk a site with your engineers, understand pipework constraints, chemical exposure and access issues, and then reflect that reality in the design rather than forcing a generic template to fit.”
Boyd says the New Zealand water sector is also moving into a new era of accountability and transparency. “As networks are renewed and treatment performance is scrutinised more closely, the quiet infrastructure inside control rooms and kiosks will matter more than ever. Panels that integrate valves, instruments and communications cleanly will give councils and operators the visibility they need to run safer, more efficient plants, without adding complexity for already stretched teams.
“At Burkert, we call ourselves ‘pioneers of flow’. In the New Zealand water and wastewater industry, that simply means asking better questions, building cabinets that do exactly what operators need, and standing behind them for the long term. When the next pump starts, filter sequence runs or valve strokes on a remote main, you shouldn’t have to think about the cabinet at all. It should already be doing its job.”
Sponsored content: For more information visit www.burkert.co.nz.