Rawalpindi: Three brick kilns using latest technology to start functioning in March

[Naveed Yaseen]

by Noor Aftab
At a time when smoke and carbon emission in the air is causing serious health hazards to residents, the establishment of three brick kilns having third generation vertical shaft brick kiln technology (3G-VSBT) in the city may be considered a first step in the right direction to cope with this alarming problem.

Two brick kilns have been set up in Lohi Bher and one in Adiala and their production unit will start functioning on March 15, providing much more encouragement to those who have been striving hard to get rid of pollution and environmental hazards.

The Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC) has provided technical assistance to local owners who themselves financed the plan after its successful implementation in India, Nepal and Afghanistan.

According to experts, the 3G-VSBK is a new Chinese brick manufacturing technology, combining with the energy efficient firing of the vertical kiln with the traditional slow cooling, which is most efficient and can potentially save a tremendous amount of coal if run in an optimal manner.

The Ministry of Environment has been pondering over various solutions to reduce environmental threats by the brick kilns including replacement of existing technologies with better ones, e.g. Vertical Shaft Brick Kilns (VSBK), relocation of the brick kilns to more remote and less populated areas and replacement of clay bricks with other, non-burnt walling materials like cement hollow blocks and other cement-based products.

If the newly built brick kilns live up to the expectations and help produce quality bricks with limited threat to environment then this technology can better provide a viable and permanent solution to most of the problems associated with those brick kilns established in old and outdated manner.

VSBK Coordinator Suleman Gul while talking to ‘The News’ said transferring Chinese technology requires considerable adjustments and improvements since the kilns produce smoke, exposing workers to an unacceptable level of health risks.

He said this technology can help find out solution to environmental and health problems while rendering the entire brick manufacturing process economically feasible, which means that the bricks have to be of high quality and comparable to other bricks available in the market.

Suleman said these brick kilns would require only 110 grams of coal per kilogram of brick against 700 grams required to produce a kilogram of brick in a traditional kiln, adding such brick kilns can be set up even in an area measuring 4 kanals whereas old kilns were generally established on the area ranging from 12 to 16 kanals.

He said around 500 VSBKs are in operational phases in India, Nepal and Vietnam producing about one billion bricks every year and scope of this technology is fast gaining ground in these countries.

The Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) has already given its recommendation to the project and is also extending its support to the consultants and the owners as well.

“The brick kilns workers would greatly benefit from these brick kilns set up in Rawalpindi as they would remain functional whole the year even in the rainy season and help reduce heat and toxic emission that pose drastic health hazards to these workers,” he said.

Suleman said VSBK technology can also help re-utilise 80 per cent of the used coal besides decreasing emission level to a greater extent, much to the benefit of firemen and others in the brick kilns who are directly exposed to heat and smoke.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=161205