BANGLADESH: The brick kilns set up in an unplanned way are polluting the environment in the south-western region of the country.

Sources said firewood is being used indiscriminately in the brick kilns in the region, including Jhenidah district.

As a result, forest resources, including fruit-bearing trees and different kinds of immature trees, are facing extinction in the region.

Rampant use of firewood in the brick fields defying the government ban in hastening the process of desertification and threatening the ecological balance in the south-western region.

It is gathered that the owners of brick fields are using trees as fuel despite availability of coal in the depots.

The price of coal is high but wood is comparatively cheap.

As a result, a section of owners of brick fields are using firewood in their brick kilns in collaboration with some law enforcing agency personnel for earning windfall profits.

Witnesses said that a huge quantity of firewood has been collected and stockpiled at brick fields by the manufacturers. Besides, bamboo is being used as fuel for burning bricks in all the brick fields.

Date trees are also being felled indiscriminately to feed the brick fields, affecting production of molasses, sources said.

According to the Brick Burning Act, after getting licence the owners of brick fields can go for burning bricks.

The government has fixed VAT for each brick field every year since 1992. Informed sources said hundreds of owners of brick fields in the south-western region of the country are ignoring the rules set by the authorities concerned.

They have no valid licence for running their business without VAT, registration and without paying income tax and connercial land development tax.

Although there is a law that a brick field should not be established without one and a half acres of land, almost all the owners of brick fields do not maintain this law.

According to the Brick Burning Act, every chimney of the brick filed must be 50 feet high and brick burning is prohibited within five kilometres of the government reserve forests or locality.

But, practically this act is being violated by the brick field owners.

Brick kilns are also affecting fertility of vast tracts of cultivable land. Informed sources said that at least five lakh acres of land in this region have already become completely barren and another 10 lakh acres are in the process because of these brick fields.

Source:
http://independent-bangladesh.com/news/apr/29/29042005ct.htm#A2