3 brick kilns demolished in Savar

The Department of Environment (DoE) in a drive yesterday fined four brick kilns Tk 33 lakh, demolished three of those and sent owner and manager of two to jail for damaging the environment and operating business without any clearance.

The arrestees are Foysal Ahmed, owner of Mitali Bricks, and Kamrul Islam, manager of Nurmin Bricks, of West Kaundia area. The other two brick kilns are Titas and Nirumin.

Foysal was sentenced to jail for two months as he did not pay Tk 5 lakh as fine while Kamrul for three months for not paying a fine of Tk 20 lakh, said Executive Magistrate Maksudul Islam, who led the mobile court drive.

He said Nurmin Bricks was fined as it did not have proper documents and it was situated beside the Turag river. Titas and Mitali were fined Tk 5 lakh each while MSM Tk 3 lakh for not having DoE clearance.

Owners of Titas and MSM have paid the fine, he said.

As per law, there should be no brick kiln within 1.5km of residential areas, educational institutions and hospitals. These establishments had been operating illegally. To make matters worse, the brick kilns were using topsoil from arable lands and polluting the environment, he added.

There are over 200 illegal brick kilns operating in Dhamrai and Savar -- contributing to the deteriorating air quality in the country, experts say.

According to DoE, brick kilns are the top air polluters, particularly during dry season when most bricks are made, turning the air quality “severely unhealthy”. Air quality plummets between November and April when brick kilns operate and there are a lot of particles in the air.