Use of concrete blocks in public construction still low

The progress in using concrete blocks instead of bricks for all public development projects has been sluggish as government agencies have made little efforts in this regard due to lax monitoring by the relevant authorities, according to experts.

In a notification issued on November 24, 2019, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change declared the use of bricks for construction would be gradually phased out by 2025 in order to curb environmental degradation.

As such, concrete blocks will be used in all public construction projects, including herringbone bond roads and type-B village roads.

The move came amid concerns of rising air pollution caused by expanding production at brick kilns to meet soaring demand from the construction sector.

The kilns release carbon dioxide and other harmful substances during the production process, which involves baking clay.

There are between 7,000 and 10,000 kilns across the country that produce 23 billion bricks annually, emitting about 15.67 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to industry trade bodies and the Department of Environment (DoE).

In addition, the brick making industry requires the excavation of around 33.50 billion cubic feet of clay each year, causing dust pollution and sedimentation.

As per the notification, concrete blocks would have to make up at least 10 per cent of the materials used by government agencies in their respective development projects in fiscal 2019-20 and 20 per cent the following year.

The threshold then rose to 60 per cent for the current fiscal and 80 per cent for fiscal 2023-24 while the use of bricks would be completely phased out by fiscal 2024-25.

The directive is not applicable for the construction and repairing of the base and sub-base of highways, it said.

In addition, legal action will be taken in the case of any deviation from the mentioned time-frame of the workplan.

But despite the ministry having outlined its annual target in this regard, government agencies have not shown much effort to follow the guideline.

Asked about the progress of the implementation, Abdul Hamid, director general of the DoE, said they are working on it.

"There are no other comments for you," he told this correspondent at his office on Monday.

Hamid further declined to comment on any potential legal action against those who violated the guidelines established in 2019 to level up the progress to this end.

The Daily Star also contacted Sanjay Kumar Bhaumik, additional secretary (environment) at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Bhaumik also declined to make any comment, citing that he recently joined the post.

Md Ziaul Haque, director of the DoE in Dhaka, admitted that for various reasons, including the coronavirus pandemic, their goals have not yet been achieved.

"Though a clear direction has been given to different government agencies, like the LGED and Public Works Department, the target has not been achieved," Haque said.

"We are trying our best to monitor in order to implement the order and also issued letters to the planning commission to not approve any infrastructure project that will not use a certain number of concrete blocks," he added.

He too did not give any exact figure on the progress rate but said they have asked all the concerned government agencies to submit progress reports.

Haque then assured that if this works effectively, the target will be achievable.

On the other hand, Sakhawat Hossain, head of sales at Mir Concrete Products Ltd, said although the market for concrete blocks has expanded, they did not see any robust initiatives from government agencies to use them.

Hossain went on to say that the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and Public Works Department did show some initiative, albeit at a slow pace.

Asked about the lack of monitoring from the DoE, he said the results speak for themselves as traditional clay bricks still dominate the construction sector.

Developers and contractors are still prone to use clay bricks, though the cost is comparatively same with concrete blocks, Hossain added.

Amirul Alam, assistant general manager for sales, marketing and operations at Hatim Concrete Industries Limited, echoed the same.

"If the government agencies would follow the instruction properly, then the block construction markets would expand vastly," he said.

Mohammad Aktaruzzaman, head of marketing and sales at Concord, one of the leading concrete block makers in the country, said the government should focus on raising awareness to meet its target.

Besides, the government should form a regulatory authority, such as the Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute, to monitor the overall progress in this regard.

"If there is no regulatory body, the expected output will not come. The market is growing by about 30 per cent annually and now there are around 200 concrete blocks makers in the country, which is a positive sign," he added.

Md Nafizur Rahman, senior research architect and head of the housing division of the House Building Research Institute (HBRI), said both government and private initiatives need attain the block using targets by 2025.

"If we make people understand the harmful effects of the clay-burned bricks, they would become interested in using concrete blocks," Rahman added.

Adil Mohammad Khan, general secretary of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners, also found the government supervision and monitoring to be wanting.

"Many autonomous and semi-government organisations do not feel the need to follow these guidelines, and there is a significant lack of adherence to these guidelines," he said.

So, it should be mandatory for every government institution to report quantitative statistics on concrete block usage after implementation.

"Special incentives may be offered to the government-private initiatives to increase the block factories to surge the block supply as well," Khan added.