Quake helps clear air at Nepal’s kilns

Devastation presented a rare chance to clean up the notoriously filthy brick industry

Below skies darkened by thick black smoke, hundreds of thousands of brick kiln workers endure backbreaking labour and suffocating heat across South Asia.

But in one corner of the region, the need to rebuild after Nepal’s devastating 2015 earthquake has presented an unexpected opportunity.

While much work remains to be done in improving working conditions, an environmental initiative has already managed to reduce emissions from the kilns and efforts are now focusing on rolling out the programme across the region, with significant implications for tackling climate change.

There are more than 150,000 kilns in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal belching out thousands of tonnes of soot — known as black carbon — a major air pollutant and the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide.

Along with much of Nepal, the industry was devastated by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit in 2015, killing around 9,000 people and flattening about a third of the country’s brick kilns. But despite the scale of the human tragedy, the devastation presented environmentalists with a rare chance to clean up at least one part of the notoriously filthy industry.

The brick kiln owners remain resistant to interference from labour rights groups, but they saw potential profit in working with environmental campaigners.

The Brick Kiln Initiative, launched by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), found a way to redesign the ovens and stack the bricks differently so that less toxic soot is produced.

By stacking the bricks inside the kilns in a zigzag pattern, the heat snakes through the gaps more efficiently, ensuring coal is completely burnt so less soot is produced.

Coal consumption halved

Emissions are cut by 60 per cent. But more importantly for the kiln owners, it nearly halves coal consumption.

Most of the 100 brick kilns in the Kathmandu valley have already adopted the new technology, according to Chitrakar.

“We had to rebuild, so we thought why not build a more scientific, environmentally friendly structure,” said brick kiln owner Raj Kumar Lakhemaru.

AFP Most of the 100 brick kilns in the Kathmandu valley have already adopted a new technology that ensures less toxic soot is produced. Emissions are cut by 60 per cent.