Initiative to address harmful effects of brick kilns fails

ISLAMABAD: The ‘Demonstration of Environmental Friendly Brick Manufacturing Programme’ (DEFBMP) has failed in identifying concrete measures to address the harmful effects of brick kilns in the country.

“An amount of Rs6 million was allocated in the last fiscal year for the programme to save the environment from the effects of brick kilns in the rest of the country, especially  in Islamabad,” an official source said.

The DEFBMP was initiated under Activity Based Capacity Development (ABCD) project by the administrative control of Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA).

The main objective of this initiative was to identify environment friendly methods for manufacturing bricks. The project was aiming to introduce better technology and safer equipment in the country.

“The entire allocation failed in producing the desired results because of lack of planning and bad administration on the part of the ministry. Eventually, this led to the programme being wrapped up,” a senior official on condition of anonymity confirmed to The Express Tribune.

There is no evidence on record to testify any effort being made to acquire the said technology for Pakistan.

DG Pak-EPA Asif Shujja Khan neither confirmed nor denied the failure of the project. He said that an expression of interest was floated in the press, seeking proposals from companies or individuals having knowledge of improved technology, who were willing to set up demonstration units.

However, in response only one proposal was received from Rabia Bricks Consultancy Services (Pvt) Ltd.“They wanted to demonstrate Indian Technology and a documentary was also shown to the Brick Kiln Association of Islamabad/Rawalpindi region,” he said.

Similarly, a dialogue was carried out with the stakeholders to discuss the various models for adoption. “So far we have not identified any suitable models for replacing the existing brick kiln technology,” he added. Muhammad Akram, Secretary All Pakistan Brick Kilns Association said that Chinese prototype was presented to Pak-EPA in 2003 which involved a lot of
heavy investment. “But no steps were taken, either to invest the capital or look for other options,” he said.

He said that the agency had promised to adopt Swiss Model or the VSBK Model (Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln) in Pakistan but again the idea faded away eventually after the ministry did not show the required resolve.

“The technology was going to be introduced under the Energy Efficient Brick Production Programme which had to be initiated by Swiss Resource Centre (SKAT) mandated by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

“All experiments in the past failed to introduce the required change in technology and no suitable replacement for the traditional bricks manufacturing machinery could be acquired,” he said. “If we do find some feasible proposal, it would be recommended by the project for adoption,” he added.

Moreover, Parliamentary Secretary Tariq Tarar said that he had no powers to summon the ministry officials for failure of any project or programme.

Meanwhile, Additional Secretary Kamran Qureshi declined to comment on the failure of the programme.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2010.