No easy answer to air pollution
WE are informed by the government that 4,400 out of estimated 6,400 brick kilns in the country are not environmentally friendly. And that, as per the government's decision, all kilns in the country will have to conform to safety standards by June, 2014 or simply not be allowed to run. That of course is a very tall order of business. Because, as per government data, Tk. 12.55crore has been realised as fines from 334 brick kilns for polluting the air, which is less than 10% of the polluting kilns in the country. Although the Department of Environment's survey puts the number of kilns at 6,414, Bangladesh Brick Manufacturing Owners Association (BMOA) claimed that there were some 8,000 kilns operating in the country and this estimate is two years old already.
With respect to Dhaka, it's estimated that there are around 500 dirty brick kilns operating in its vicinity. They suffer from all sorts of inefficiencies. Most are of the Fixed Chimney Kiln (FCK) technology and very inefficient in terms of fuel usage. The smoke emitted by the average kiln is thick in soot, which has contributed to Dhaka being one of the “dirtiest” cities in the world. According to one study, 40% of the city's air pollution comes from these kilns. Efforts are underway to help make a difference. The “Financing Brick Kiln Efficiency Improvement Project” worth $ 50 million, financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and handed out as loans through local banks to local kilns owners to make a transition to energy efficient kilns is bearing results. However, funds required to make this huge industry “green” are simply not there. Nor is there political will to make the industry conform to standards since demand for bricks is constantly on the rise.
The construction boom in the country has been an ongoing process over the last few decades. With an influx of nearly half a million people every year, demand for housing has skyrocketed and is likely to remain so for years to come. Demand for bricks remains also due to the large-scale infrastructure projects. And one cannot forget the often overlooked fact that brick chips are an inalienable part of road construction in Bangladesh. While estimates vary, it can take anywhere up to $ 2 million to transform a FCK kiln to Hybrid Hoffman kiln (HHK), which is considered to be environmentally friendly emitting less carbon.
A study in 2006 revealed that market share for different brick kilns in Bangladesh was 75.4% for FCK, 19.2% for BTK, whereas HHK constituted a measly 0.6%. These conventional kilns consume a very large amount of fuel but “fail to utilise the effective heat energy for burning bricks. Estimates indicate that in Bangladesh it takes about 22-24 tonnes of coal and 10,000 cubic feet of soil to produce 100,000 bricks.” The principal raw material for making bricks is low quality coal imported from India that fires up kilns during November to May each year.
As stated previously, besides the real estate sector, the government itself is a major consumer of bricks produced domestically; the main consumers being the Roads and Highways Department, Public Works Department and Local Government Engineering Department. According to UNDP estimates, nearly 9billion bricks are produced per year and the industry has grown at around 5.3% annually for the last decade.
The air pollution caused by kilns in Dhaka city's vicinity is blamed for the alarming rise in respiratory problems of its residents. So what is to be done? With weak implementation of the regulatory framework, little can be done besides making bold public statements. This is best exemplified by the fact that though there is a law explicitly banning the burning of firewood in kilns since 1989, it is estimated that nearly 2 million tons of firewood are burnt in kilns per annum.
The ADB initiative is an encouraging project, but little has been done to encourage owners to make the transformation to cleaner technology by means of holding them accountable through effective monitoring and penalty. Brick kiln owners have their points too. Cost of moving to “cleaner technology” costs money and takes time. Slapping on these deadlines without taking into cognisance the intricacies involved in finance and finding suitable land is not going to work. To put all this in perspective, if we estimated that the average cost of transforming a traditional kiln to an energy-efficient one at $ 2 million, then it would take Bangladesh an estimated $ 10 billion to convert all FCKs in the country. Tackling the kilns around Dhaka city would cost nearly a billion dollars.
The writer is Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.
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