Bangladesh’s capital city frequently dominates yearly lists of cities with the worst air quality in the world, and despite a number of measures taken by the administration to address the issue, the very air we breathe is ceaseless in its efforts to slowly kill us all.
One of the biggest offenders in the continued deterioration of our air quality has been the many brick kilns that dot our map. Not satisfied with placing their own employees under hellish working conditions, it appears that owners of these brick kilns will not stop until the whole nation suffers as a byproduct of their unethical business practices.
To that end, it is heartening news that the High Court has given orders for 130 unregistered brick kilns to be razed to the ground in the hill districts of Bandarban, Rangamati, Khagrachhari to curb the problem of air pollution.
It’s high time such a drive was made in our metropolises as well. Given the sheer number of such brick kilns, one would reasonably assume that the registration status of a good portion of them would be under question. The administration must look into this matter immediately and take the necessary steps.
And even then, the sheer impact these brick kilns have on our environmental integrity could never justify so many of them existing in the first place, registered or not. But the fact of the matter remains that many of these kilns are indeed unregistered, and the only reason they are still under operation is because they are usually blessed with the impunity of certain influential figures.
This needs to stop.
As a developing nation, it is understandable that balancing liveability and development can be a tricky endeavour. Which is why it is all the more important for the administration to judiciously deal with the more obviously problematic elements that are directly impacting liveability.
