The New Nation - Internet Edition

BRICKS are made in the country by burning clays in moulds at kilns with firewood, gas or coal. But regulations are there for the brickfields not to burn firewood. The demand for firewood in the brick kilns leads to the cutting down of trees. Trees that give off oxygen and are needed so much for a healthy and salubrious environment, come directly under a threat from the unregulated activities of brick kiln operators. This was the reason for introducing regulations that imposed prohibition on brick burning with firewood and allowed burning with only gas or coal.

But it appears that the use of firewood is considered cheaper by the brick field owners and they resort to such use defying the law and regulations. The law needs to be vigorously applied in this area. Therefore, attention of the higher authorities ought to be directed to this problem. There are other regulations as well which the managers of the kiln ought to heed, such as building chimneys at a certain height and building the chimneys in such positions that their exhausts can be discharged towards relatively less inhabited places.

The brick field operators will have to be obliged to adhere to all of these rules by the authorities. As it is, many populated places in the country along with their vegetation are facing environmental degradation from the freestyle operation of the brick fields. People in such areas are found suffering from respiratory, skin diseases and other ailments. The diseases are considered the direct outcome of unregulated brick burning. The dying of trees due to the excessive fumes from brick fields are contributing to serious environmental decline. All of these things undeline the need for strict enforcement of regulations in relation to the brick fields.