A 9.15 magnitude earthquake off Sumatra on Dec. 26, the world's strongest in four decades, triggered a massive tsunami.

With no warning systems in place, the waves killed as many as 232,000 people in a dozen Indian Ocean nations and left more than a million homeless. Aceh was hardest hit and about 170,000 people were killed or left missing there.

Idwan Suhardi, a deputy minister at the Research and Technology Ministry overseeing the system, said while deployment of the first buoys was a milestone, completing the five-year project would be an uphill battle.

"To deal with this tsunami problem, no institution can do it alone. Not even one country can do it alone," he said, adding it would be a "world mistake" if nations did not provide aid.

"There are still many components that we need to develop and we have not covered them yet. Actually, most things have not been covered," Suhardi said in an interview, adding the project needed $120 million to cover equipment costs alone.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago with 17,000 islands, needs 20 more buoys with sea-floor-bottom pressure sensors, according to the system's blueprint.

India and Thailand are setting up similar systems.

INTEREST

Suhardi said many nations had showed an interest in helping with a few upgrading existing equipment, but only Germany had been willing to ink a long-term deal worth around $45 million to help Indonesia's plan to avoid another catastrophe.

Asked how much of the project, which includes setting up 120 tide gauges with digital recordings, 160 seismographs and 500 accelerographs nationwide, had been completed Suhardi said: "Under 10 percent. So, it's a long, long way to go."

The two buoys off Sumatra were being tested and should be operational in January, he said. While they had been activated, they were not functioning as part of an integrated system yet, as other officials had said last week, Suhardi added.

One buoy was placed close to Nias island, where hundreds of residents were killed by an 8.7 magnitude quake in March.

Last December's 9.15 magnitude earthquake unleashed the most devastating tsunami on record.

Suhardi said the warning system would only work if there was also public awareness of the danger of tsunamis.

Local scientists have forecast the next big tsunami in Indonesia would smash the West Sumatra city of Padang, where two-thirds of its 900,000 population live on a flat seaside area. The city is about halfway along the lengthy island.

Suhardi said the presence of the ships in Padang carrying the first two buoys had boosted the city's awareness.

"We know it will happen again although we don't know when. So, we need to educate people from the kindergarten level. Padang is an example where there is such awareness but I am not sure other areas are like that," he said.