More than one-third of the brick kilns across the country are running illegally without environment certificate and environment-friendly technology. These illegal kilns have been severely polluting air as well as environment for years together. The Department of Environment has prepared a list of these illegal brick kilns recently, sources said.
According to the Department of Environment, there are 8033 brick kilns across the country, out of which 2,837 kilns do not have environment-friendly technology, and 2,513 do not have required certificate from the department concerned. Again, more than 3000 brick kilns did not fulfill both of those mandatory conditions.
Earlier the government had decided to shut down the brick kilns that have not been using environment-friendly technology after 2015. Recently the High Court has ordered to shut down the illegal brick kilns within 15 days in Dhaka and adjacent four districts through mobile court.
Following the court order, an inter-ministerial meeting on Monday last has taken various decisions to stop air pollution. AirVisual, a global air quality monitor, recently revealed that currently Dhaka city has the 2nd worst air quality in the world. These illegal brick kilns are playing a major role in polluting the capital city’s air to such alarming degree.
However, environmentalists opine that according to the law of the country, 90 percent of the brick kilns across the country are illegal. There are also reasons to doubt that the brick kilns, claimed to have been converted into environment-friendly one by applying modern technology, really have installed modern technology effectively as no overall review has been done by the Department of Environment yet. Environmentalists have long been demanding an overall review in this regard.
According to the Department of Environment, Dhaka Division has the most number of illegal brick kilns. Some 688 brick kilns are running without environment certificate in this division followed by Chattogram Division with 525 illegal brick kilns. Khulna and Rajshahi Division have 300 illegal brick kilns each and Rangpur has 347.
Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act-2010 and Brick Kiln Control Act-2013 strictly restrict erecting brick kilns within one kilometer of residential areas, hills, forests and water bodies; and on arable land. But very few of the brick kilns have been erected obeying the laws.
Deputy Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Habibun Nahar said that the government has started taking strict steps against the brick kilns to stop air pollution.
But as development works go on in full swing in the dry season, a lot of bricks are needed around this time. However, the government will continue its work through coordinating development and controlling pollution, she added.
