Cleaner brick kilns stressed

11 December 2011, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Speakers at a seminar yesterday stressed the need for adopting cleaner, eco-friendly and energy efficient technologies in the country's brick making industries to reduce environment pollution and make efficient use of energy. Existing brick kilns surrounding Dhaka are causing 40 percent of the city's air pollution, emitting eight million tonnes of carbon a year and causing the death of trees and serious diseases in humans, they said. The seminar, “Environment friendly low-cost brick making technology”, was jointly organised by The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Brazil in association with Gesellschaft Fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Annesha Group at a city hotel. Speaking at the seminar, Industries Minister Dilip Barua said environment friendly brick kilns are very important not only for the environment but also for development due to their low carbon emission rate and ability to reduce production costs. Prof Abul Barkat, president of Bangladesh Economic Association, said change is inevitable and every nation and state is looking for environment-friendly technologies for uninterrupted development. Prof Francisco Jose Casanova from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil shared an innovative and environment-friendly brick making technology through a PowerPoint presentation. The Brazilian Ambassador to Bangladesh Ricardo Luiz Vianna Carvalho, Otto Gomm of GIZ Bangladesh and Annesha Group Managing Director UM Ashek also spoke at the seminar.