The hollow promise of hollow blocks by 2025

Emitting gray fumes, several giant chimneys created the appearance of dead trees in a mysterious forest. As we got closer to Balurchar, a shoal in the Dhaleshwari River 12km south of Dhaka, we saw brickfields operating in full swing. It is early January, the peak season for the hazardous brick industry.

Mohammad Firoz, Manager of Mecca and Medina Bricks, was overseeing the workers. Some of the workers were pouring grounded coal into furnace holes on one side, while others were gathering the red bricks at the other end of the kiln. A third group was preparing clay from piles of soil.

This brickfield, along with other neighbouring ones, had been converted to a Typical Zigzag Kiln (TZK) from a Fixed Chimney Kiln (FCK). Although the former is a little better than the latter, both are now considered energy inefficient and pollutants.

Sometimes, the Department of Environment (DoE) raids the kilns, because their licenses expired long ago. Moreover, the soil they use is not always collected from designated areas.

Kiln operators, however, seldom pay heed to the bans and restrictions imposed by existing brick kiln control laws.

"This is our moment. When the price of imported coal falls slightly, so does the price of bricks and so, sales are growing," said Firoz, adding that they will supply around 20 lakh bricks to the market in the next two weeks.

Pointing to a spot where soil is piled up, he said around 15,000 cubic feet (cft) soil landed this morning and more will come. Soil supplier Abul Hossain said he collected the soil from a shoal at the Padma estuary in Chandpur.

"Actually, the soil was collected from Kuchiamora [an agricultural zone located 7km west of Balurchar]," said a worker while preparing clay.

Despite legal barriers that were put in place as early as 1989, brick kilns continue to grow and multiply, even around agricultural zones and environmentally sensitive areas in Bangladesh. The political connections of brickfield owners, alongside inconsistent regulations surrounding the use of technology, have contributed to such a surge.

On paper, the government prioritises sun-burnt hollow blocks. In 2019, the government issued a circular to implement hundred percent use of hollow blocks by 2025, particularly in public building construction. By 2022, 60% of that target should have been achieved, although industry insiders say only 5% has actually been achieved, not just to the detriment of the environment, but also businesses who invested in environmentally-friendly construction material.

The government continues to dilly-dally with regulations to encourage the use of hollow blocks, while continuing to finance fire-run kilns.

According to DoE officials, there are around 8,500 brickfields in the country. However, independent researchers and green activists claim that the number is no less than 13,000. They consume around 350 crore cft soil while producing around 2,400 crore bricks annually.

A World Bank document mentioned more than 5,000 brickfields functional in the country in 2011. This means the number of clay brick kilns have more than doubled in the last decade as a result of extensive infrastructural changes in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association Chief Executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan said, "According to the seventh Five Year Plan, the presence of fire-run brickfields should have been zero by 2020. When we see the growing number of brick kilns, we can say the government is compromising on its commitment."

She added that a nexus of brickfield owners and government officials is active in making the laws powerless.

When politics and money trump the environment

The hilly Islampur Union under Rangunia Upazila of Chattogram district houses a large bird sanctuary and the Gumai Beel - one of the country's largest agricultural zones where we get bumper crop production.

Around 70 FCK-based brickfields - all illegal - are haphazardly placed along the Chattogram-Rangamati Highway that falls under the Union.

In a recent visit, a team from TBS Chattogram Bureau found soil from the hills and adjacent crop fields dug out to feed the brick kilns, jeopardising the livelihood of the farmers.

According to a DoE publication of 2018, each FCK burns about 6,000 kg of coal a day, releasing about 516 kg PM10, 300 kg SO2 and 1,452 kg CO2 into the air each time. PM10 are small particles in air which can damage the heart and lungs when you inhale them. SO2 (sulphur dioxide) and CO2 (carbon dioxide) are greenhouse gasses responsible for global warming.

Locals allege Islampur Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Siraj Uddin Chowdhury and one UP Member Mohiuddin Talukder Mohan are behind this destruction of the environment. Both own several brickfields.

Chairman of neighbouring Dakshin Rajanagar Union Parishad, Ahmed Syed Talukder, further alleged that the kilns burn illegally logged firewood instead of coal.

DoE Deputy Director for Chattogram district Ferdous Anwar admitted that most of the Rangunia brickfields were set up illegally, with the backing of local political elites. "DoE sealed the brickfields several times but they quickly resumed operations," Anwar said.

Our Khulna Correspondent recently found at least 14 unauthorised brickfields along the River Hari at Kharnia, under Dumuria Upazila. Of them, one KP Bricks, is owned by Khulna-5 constituency parliament member Narayan Chandra Chanda. Dumuria Upazila Chairman Ezaz Ahmed also owns a brickfield called Setu Bricks and Industries.

According to Bangladesh Water Development Board, 18 brickfields at Dumuria, 18 at Rupsha, 11 at Terokhada and three at Dighalia have been operating illegally, encroaching upon the boundaries of rivers.

Executive Director of the Association for Land Reform and Development Shamsul Huda alleged that an unholy alliance of vested interest groups, comprising political elites and government officials, are protecting the brick kilns for monetary benefit.

The negative impacts of brick manufacture are multidimensional, and agriculture faces the strongest blow.

"70 to 80% of brickfields are built on agricultural land. Along with losing topsoil, often, poor communities who are not politically empowered lose their habitats. Providing them with legal support does not help, as the administration remains unsupportive," Huda said.

He cited a case in Bogura where the administration failed to protect farmers from topsoil diggers despite a High Court order.

A haze of regulations

The government's efforts to rein in the hazardous brick industry is not new. In 1989, the Brick Burning (Regulation) Act was enacted, banning the use of firewood for brick manufacture. The law also introduced the requirement for license in the sector.

Twelve years later, the act was amended to regulate the locations of brickfields, prohibiting brick kilns within 3km of upazila and district headquarters, municipal areas, residential areas, gardens, and reserve forests.

In 2002, DoE issued a circular making 120ft FCK compulsory, replacing Bull's Trench Kilns. Five years later, a new circular said DoE will not renew environmental clearance certificates if brickfield owners did not shift to alternative fuel and improved technologies by 2010.

In July 2010, another circular was issued banning FCK operations within the next three years.

By enacting the Brick Manufacturing and Kiln Control Act in 2013, the government endorsed sun-burnt hollow blocks as the best alternative to clay bricks, and all the brick kilns were instructed to have hollow bricks comprise at least 50% of their total production.

Ironically, the same year, the government launched an Asian Development Bank-funded project worth $50 million to convert FCKs and typical zigzags to Hybrid Hoffman Kilns (HHK) and Tunnel Kilns, instead of giving incentive to hollow bricks manufacture.

According to the ADB Completion Report published in January 2022, only 19 modern kilns, 12 tunnel kilns and seven HHK were built with the loan. Nine of them are in operation and the rest either shut down or slowed down production due to various reasons, including shortage of capital investment, the report said.

On 28 February 2019, the government amended the Brick Manufacturing and Kiln Control Act, permitting issuance of auxiliary circular to make the use of hollow blocks compulsory.

The same year, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) issued a circular, setting six periodical targets till 2025, to implement hundred percent use of hollow blocks, particularly in public building construction.

For the 2022-2023 FY, the target was 60%. Sector related people, however, said that about 5% has been achieved so far.

Asadur Rahman Khan, secretary general of Bangladesh Brick Manufacturing Owners Association (BBMOA), said the brickfield owners tried to comply with the government circulars, but failed as the frequent changes in the law made things difficult for them.

"DoE is now fining us for the kilns they had promoted once. However, we [BBMOA members] are planning to shut all of our kilns by 2025," Asadur said.

DoE's Monitoring and Enforcement wing collected Tk701,289,900 as fine, jailed 59 people under different terms and lodged 2,911 cases during its 1,694 raids between January 2019 and November 2022.

Asadur added, "If the government provided us with necessary support, we would have converted our kilns to hollow block factories much earlier."

What kind of support did you need? He replied, "First of all, the government should have made the use of hollow blocks at least partially compulsory for public works. Then, the transformation would require incentives like soft loans."

DoE Director General Abdul Hamid refused to comment on the issue.

The hollow promise of hollow blocks

Following a High Court guideline, a high-powered ministerial committee on 3 February 2020 instructed at least 10 government wings, including the Public Works Department (PWD), to implement the November 2019 MoEFCC circular - that set the 2025 goal - immediately. According to meeting minutes, the wings were also instructed to provide the MoEFCC with progress reports every four months.

One deputy secretary at MoEFCC told TBS that the ministry did not receive any update till the filing of this report.

The wings were supposed to include the use of hollow blocks at the annual schedule - a guidance for tender bidders.

"Till now, we have not received any direction from higher officials," said Babul Akter Babla, the secretary general of Bangladesh Public Works Contractors' Association.

TBS obtained a document that suggests the chief engineer of PWD received a copy of the February 2020 decisions on 14 January 2021.

Then why did the contractors not receive any instruction? TBS could not reach PWD Chief Engineer Mohammad Shamim Akhter to get his reply.

Monirul Islam, managing director of Axis Energy Bangladesh - a prominent supplier of block manufacturing machines, said around 250 entrepreneurs responded to the government call while opening block manufacturing units in the country. But they are now struggling with their business due to the small market for environmentally-friendly bricks.

Instead of achieving the target of 60%, about 5% of new building projects of the government are using hollow blocks, Monirul said.

"If the responsible government wings started following the MoEFCC circular, the entrepreneurs would not have suffered. There is still time. If the government wants, achieving the 2025 goal will be possible," he opined.

Since 2016, Building Technology and Ideas (BTI) has been using hollow blocks in their construction projects. BTI is among the 30 big ventures manufacturing hollow blocks for their own use.

BTI Executive Director (Marketing) Md Tareq Aziz observed that use of hollow blocks in the private construction projects has not crossed the 5% milestone. He said, "Shutting down the use of fire-burnt bricks will be the easiest by promoting hollow blocks. To do this, government incentive and awareness among builders and masons are crucial."

"If we avoid modern materials like hollow blocks, we will fall behind other countries," he added.

At present, fire-burnt clay bricks are popular only in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and a few places in India while Vietnam is on its way to phasing it out.

To promote hollow blocks, the state-run Housing and Building Research Institute (HBRI) - the leading advocate for hollow blocks in the country - is including entrepreneurs in its digital map so that those who want it can find them online.

"We will also include the masons who are trained to work with hollow blocks in the map," HBRI Principal Research Officer Nafizur Rahman told the TBS.

TBS journalists Abu Azad, Jobaer Chowdhury and Awal Sheikh contributed to this report.

Brick kilns / illegal brick kilns / Hollow blocks