Govt to install 23 tsunami buoys until late 2008

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government has set itself the target of installing 23 tsunami buoys in Indonesian waters until the end of 2008, an official said.

"One of the tsunami buoys has already been put in place in the southern part of the Sunda Strait," Ridwan Djamaludin, head of the oceanographic survey unit at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Techonology (BPPT), said here on Monday.

Eleven of the tsunami buoys were locally made, he said, adding that 10 units were produced in Germany and the rest in the United States.

The tsunami buoys would be installed at a depth of 2,054 meters below the sea level, Ridwan said at a media briefing about a "tsunami drill" to be carried out in Banten province on December 26, 2007.

He said the tsunami buoys would directly transmit data to the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG).

"We checked the tsunami buoys` sophistication on December 14 including the water height," he said, adding that the tsunami buoys were equipped with sensors and data transmission instruments.

Ridwan said the government would conduct an evacuation exercise involving 10,000 people in Banten`s coastal area on December 26 witnessed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhohono.

The first evacuation drill was carried out in Padang, West Sumatra, on December 26, 2005 followed by the second one in Bali on December 26, 2006.