The government has decided to extend the time-frame for converting conventional environmental hazardous brick-making technology to energy-efficient ones.
The government decision came only for those whose environment clearance certificates are still valid.
The Environment Department said the factories that have validity of their existing environment clearance certificates can continue their business with old technology until the expiry date.
“Those who obtained environment clearance certificate and still have validity can continue their business,” said Solaiman Haider, deputy director of the department.
He also said they were not issuing any new environment clearance certificates to those still having old technology.
On July 17, the Department of Environment published a public circular stating that the Brick-Making and Brick Field Establishment (Control) Act 2013 effective from July 01 this year clearly prohibited conventional technologies in brick-making industry.
However, most of the factories are yet to take initiatives to change their technologies. Currently, there are more than 6356 brick kilns in the country.
Earlier, in September 2010, the government gave brick kiln owners two years to adopt the energy-efficient and relatively cleaner technologies like Zigzag, Hybrid Hoffman Kiln (HHK) and Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSBK).
Later, the deadline was extended three times to end June 2014.
However, Asadur Rahman, vice-president of Bangladesh Brick-Makers Owners Association said most of the brick fields are yet to be converted due to shortage of funds as the improved technologies require huge investment.
Moreover, lack of skilled manpower is one of the major obstacles in using new technologies and the brick makers would need at least one more year to train adequate manpower for the improved technology, he added.
The new law – Brick Making and Brick field Establishment (Control) Act 2013 – also prohibits establishment of brick fields in residential, protected, commercial and agricultural areas, and also in forests, sanctuaries, wetlands and Ecological Critical Areas (ECAs).
Any establishment in the prohibited areas would be treated as a “criminal offence,” the law says, with varying degrees of punishment for the offenders to be determined by the nature of the area(s) involved.
Setting up a brick field in residential, protected or commercial locations, would lead to maximum punishment of five years in prison or Tk5m in fines, or both.
For setting up a brick field in forests – private or public – sanctuaries and wetlands, the punishment would be one year’s imprisonment or Tk100,000 in fines.
However, a recent visit to the capital’s periphery showed that most of the brick factories are still continuing their business in the same place though the new act does not permit them to do their business there as they areas are established as wetland.
The brick-making industry is one of the fastest-growing in Bangladesh earning a yearly revenue of around Tk8.66b.
It is also one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emission estimated to produce 6m tonnes of CO2 annually.
Some estimates say about 33% of the fuel used in brick kilns comes from wood fuel which is strictly prohibited by law.