Untimely rain damages huge unbaked bricks
Untimely rain for the last couple of days damaged huge quantities of unbaked bricks that were piled up in the open sky for drying at many brick kilns in different upazilas of the district.
The rain affected brick kiln owners claimed that the total extent of loss could go up to Tk 14 crore.
The non-stop rain since Thursday night damaged raw bricks at different brick kilns in 12 upazilas of the district.
Local brick kiln owners said there are 91 brickfields in operation in Mirzapur upazila in the current brick burning season.
The rain damaged unbaked bricks in at least 82 brickfields, they claimed.
While visiting a number of brickfields at different villages in Mirzapur this correspondent saw huge quantities of raw bricks piled up inside the kilns were damaged as the rain water entered the kilns premises.
Mohammad Mokhles, owner of NSMB Bricks at Bhaora Noyapara village, told this correspondent that raw bricks, which were kept for burning, worth around Tk 12 lakh were either completely or partially damaged by the untimely rain.
“I will have to spend an additional Tk 3 lakh to remove the damaged bricks from kiln premises. Moreover, it will take at least 10 days to go for fresh production,” Mokhles said, adding that if the weather condition does not improve soon the kiln owners will face severe shortage of raw bricks.
Mohammad Awlad Hossain, owner of Hakim Brick Kiln at Dherua village under Gorai union, said he incurred a loss of about Tk 14 lakh as the rain damaged most of the raw bricks which were piled for drying.
Mirzapur Brick Kiln Owners’ Association President Firoz Haider Khan claimed that on an average bricks worth around Tk 10 lakh to Tk 12 lakh were damaged in each of the rain affected brick kilns in the upazila.
Moreover, they will have to bear additional labour cost to remove the damaged bricks, he added.
Meanwhile, thousands of unbaked bricks kept for drying in around 60 brickfields in different areas of Ghatail upazila were also badly damaged due to the untimely rain, Ghatail Brick Kiln Owners’ Association General Secretary Faruk Hossain said.
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