New initiatives on tsunami and disaster warning systems are being adopted by the Tauranga City Council this year.

The initiative includes joining Readynet, a New Zealand designed web-based emergency information database, and ditching a tsunami sirens warning system in favour of a plug-in household ripple control device.

The inundation map.

'What we have done is agree to our contribution to funding,” says Mayor Stuart Crosby.

'We've approved that, but we made one change; the alerting system $53,200 operating expenditure – that will be recoverable.

'It will essentially be a user pays mechanism, but it is yet to be determined on how we will recover that money.”

It is a package deal that includes a range of communication options from radio and television announcements, community contact systems using texting and emails, and mobile public address loudspeakers and door-to-door warnings.

Readynet will cost the city $16,000 a year, which is a ‘negotiated' price for members of the BOP Civil Defence Emergency Management Group.

The background report to councillors states it would otherwise cost the city $45,000 a year.

While the total cost of the system over two years is $1.2 million, Tauranga City Council's 19 per cent share is $131,100 from the 2011/2012 budget and $100,700 from the 2012/2013 budget.

The council is also agreeing to buy 1900 power line messaging units at $120 each. The $228,000 will be paid over two years.

The council bought alarms are intended for public institutions, rest homes and neighbourhood support coordinators.

Ratepayers living in the areas of Papamoa that are vulnerable to tsunami inundation will have to buy their own.

The alarms plug into mains power and are activated by a ripple control system, similar to the one used by power companies to turn hot water cylinders on and off.

Inadequacies in the tsunami warning system have been exposed by several tsunami alerts in recent years, and backed up by the Civil Defence ‘inundation map' which illustrates the magnitude of the task of alerting and moving tens of thousands of Papamoa residents to safe ground in the event of a warning.

Historically there have been four tsunamis exceeding a five metre run up height in the last 4000 years.

The Civil Defence inundation map shows most of Papamoa and large areas of Mount Maunganui would be affected by such a tsunami.

Since European settlement there have been 11 tsunami with a less than three-metre run up height along the Bay of Plenty coast. Many smaller events have been revealed following the introduction of sea level gauges.

The council originally budgeted to spend $17,500 on the sirens this financial year and $215,000 next year. All the costs are factored to include a 50 per cent discount by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.