By
Makereta Komai,
4 July
2013, Nadi, Fiji - Tokelau’s
plea for help with the establishment of weather stations on its three islands
has been answered, with an offer from New Zealand.
The head
of the island’s environment services, Kelemeni Tavuto was overwhelmed with the
positive responses from donors at the Pacific Meteorological Council (PMC)
meeting, underway in Nadi this week.
“Tokelau
is grateful to New Zealand for agreeing to support us with the most needed
weather stations on our three islands. This was one of the urgent needs for our
Met Service, said Tavuto.
He said
coming to a regional meeting like the PMC has solved some of the immediate
needs of the Met Service on the island, which comes under Environment Services.
“The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has offered us four
chatty beetles to help us with the dissemination of information to and from our
islands.
“We will
assign a chatty beetle device each for our three islands and one will be based
at our office in Apia, said Tavuto.
Chatty
beetle is a text based alert and message device used in remote locations the
smaller island countries in the North Pacific, funded by NOAA. It is designed
to disseminate hazard messages (e.g. tsunami warnings, heavy surf, tropical
cyclone warnings, etc.) to remote islands.
“NOAA is
ready to deliver the chatty beetle devices to Tokelau, as soon as we are ready.
I will go back home now to prepare for the delivery.
“The
University of Oklahoma has also promised to provide equipment for our weather
stations, said Tavuto.
Tokelau
was represented at the PMC meeting for the first this year, with funding
support from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme
(SPREP).
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