To prevent air pollution, the government has planned to convert all brick kilns using fire into non-fire ones, said director of Department of Environment (DoE).
Brick kilns using fire are considered to be one of the major sources of air pollution in the country.
DoE Director Ziaul Haque said the government is planning to make air clean and free of pollution within possible shortest time, at a discussion program at Edward, M Kennedy Center (EMK) in the city on Thursday.
The program was organized jointly by US Embassy, EMK centre and ULAB Center for Sustainable development.
Ziaul Haque said the government between 2020 to 2026 will allow auto-bricks with non-fire technology in the brick kilns.
The director explained that the mud bricks manufactured using the traditional process should be transformed.
Vehicles are another major source of air pollution and unfit vehicles must be removed in order to reduce air pollution, he said.
Mahmood Hossain, owner of an auto brick kiln in Savar said that hundreds of companies have already invested a huge amount of money in auto-fire kilns. If government is moving to non-fire brick fields then what will these kilns do? he questioned.
Additional Secretary of DoE and Project Director for Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE) Project, Manjurul Hannan Khan, said this is not only a policy issue but also an issue of personal attitude as well.
He said that people neither think of air pollution nor of any measure for the betterment of environment when they construct a building.
Following a question raised by one of the panelists, also a senior reporter of a national daily, he said the draft of Clean Air Act has been finalized and it would be published on the government website shortly seeking recommendations from people and experts.
He also confessed that there is no data on indoor air pollution in the country.
Professor Biswas Karabi Farhana emphasized on institutional capacity building and institutional collaboration to tackle the problem effectively.
Chief Guest of the program the Science Envoy for Air Quality of US Dr James Shauer said people in Bangladesh, seemed very alert over the issue but a lot more has to be done to increase the air quality and we have to push them to accelerate the process.
Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) of ULAB, Professor Samiya Selim, Health specialist of the centre, Anna Williams and other government and NGO officials were present at the program.
