Crackdown on illegal brick kilns

Brick kilns are common at the Airport, Bayazid, Kattoli and Fateyabad areas in the port city, defying the Chittagong City Corporation ban. The authorities are indifferent to the problem. The picture was taken from the Kattoli area. PHOTO: STAR

The DoE filed 29 cases against the illegal brick kilns during the last three weeks.

The actions were taken against the brick kilns that flout the rules of the Brick Burning Act causing pollution and health hazards, sources said. They are operating without any No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the DoE.

Of the 29 cases, 12 were filed in Hathazari upazila, seven in Satkania, four in Rangunia, three in Chandanaish, two in Lohagara and one in Patiya, they said.

"There are about 350 brick fields in Chittagong. Of them, only 60 run with a license and follow the DoE act properly and the rest flout the rules," DoE Director Mosharraf Hossain said.

“Besides, 162 brick kiln owners, in the wake of our measures, moved to the higher court and obtained stay order for which we are not able to take further action against them,” he said.

Most of the brick kilns here don't have chimneys with the required height of 120 feet. The average height of their chimneys varies from 30 to 40 feet only.

"The low height of chimneys causes serious pollution and unscientific brick kilns emit thick smoke," said Mosharraf Hossain.

He said most of the owners tend to remain non-responsive to our warning and whenever we go for legal actions against them they move to the higher court for a stay order.

"It often makes our efforts fruitless," he said. We, however, also appealed to the High Court against such moves of the brick kiln owners and the court has vacated five such stay orders."

The DoE started the drive in February and would continue this month, he said.

The Environment Protection Act 2001 prohibits construction of brick kilns within a three-kilometre radius of any city corporation, municipality, upazila headquarters, reserve forest and areas where at least 50 trees, 50 residential structures and school, college or other educational institutions are located.

"If we follow this act properly, I think that there will be no place for us other than the Bay of Bengal or the open sky to establish brick kilns," Abdul Malik, president of Greater Chittagong Brick Field Owners' Association, told The Daily Star on Sunday.

He urged the authorities concerned to give them an exclusive zone in Chittagong for brick kilns. "If the government gives us the zone we will not construct any brick kiln in and around the localities or at places prohibited by the Act," he said.

Malik, however, dismissed allegations of polluting environment and said, "We, in fact in one sense, are contributing to the eradication of unemployment. Each of our brick field is feeding at least 500 poor people and their dependents."

Blaming the 'partial' attitude of the DoE, he said the officials concerned have turned a blind eye to the hundreds of rundown and old transports in the city that pollute environment with thick smoke.

"Many industries and factories are enjoying the same impunity as they have political leverage," Malik said.