KEY POINTS:
A $500,000 New Zealand-made tsunami warning system could be installed along the Western Bay's coastline within two years.
The system, dubbed Meerkat because of its distinctive high-pitched alarm, is backed by the combined Tauranga City and Western Bay District Council emergency management committee.
A committee meeting this week gave support in principle to installing Meerkat sirens at 84 sites from Waihi Beach to Pukehina.
The area includes some of New Zealand's most popular and busy beaches.
The unique high-frequency siren was successfully tested on September 30 at Mt Maunganui's main beach.
A decision on the alarm system will be made at the two councils' joint governing committee meeting in April.
Developed by a father-and-son engineering team, the Meerkat sirens were tested after disappointing coverage using the Bay's coastal fire station sirens.
The big advantage was that the infrastructure to activate the alarms was already in place through electricity distribution company PowerCo's investment in ripple control technology.
Emergency management operations manager Alan Pearce said the system had been tested with PowerCo and it worked.
He was not aware of any off-the-shelf technology that could do the same job as the Meerkat system.
"The ripple technology is brilliant," he said.
It would also increase the probability that more people were warned.
The system had a 20-year life span.
- Bay of Plenty Times
