Roadmap for Brick Kiln Sector: Challenges and Opportunities

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) organized a one day workshop on “Roadmap for Brick Kiln Sector: Challenges and Opportunities” held on 8th February, 2016 at Magnolia Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The workshop received an overwhelming response from the different stake holders including officers from State Pollution Control Board, researchers and brick kiln experts. More than 50 participants attended the workshop. 

The programme discussed the future roadmap for the brick kiln sector in the country and how the environmental performance of the sector can be improved. Last year, Anil Aggarwal Dialouge, one of the flagship events of CSE, discussed about brick kilns in one of its parallel sessions. One of the major outcomes of the Dialouge was to develop a National Brick Mission which will help and guide the transformation of the brick sector of the country. Taking recommendations from the dialogue and some intensive research in the field, CSE developed a Nation Brick Mission paper. Obtaining feedback and inputs of different stakeholders on the roadmap for brick kiln sector discussed in the National Brick Mission paper was one of the objectives of the workshop.  

The workshop was divided into three sessions, each discussing one important issue associated with the brick sector in the country. The first session was chaired by Dr. D. D. Basu, Former Additional Director, Central Pollution Control Board, which  discussed the need for new draft standards for the brick kilns, whether it will be of any help in improving the environmental performance of the sector. 

Second session was chaired by Dr. Sameer Maithel, Director, Greentech Knowledge Solution Private Limited focused on the issues of Clay extraction and what other alternatives are available which can replace clay in brick manufacturing processes. Shri A K Ojha, Member Secretary, Bihar State Pollution Control Board and Dr Karthikeyan, Member Secretary, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board shared the status of clearance and status of bricks from clay-alternatives. 

The third session discussed the national brick mission, which CSE has prepared. Nivit Kumar Yadav, Programme Manager, Centre for Science and Environment gave overview of the National Brick Mission. This was followed by presentation by Mr. Milind Deore, Energy Economist, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) on financial incentive by BEE to improve the environmental performance of the brick kilns in Varanasi. The session was chaired by Mr. Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General of CSE. Mr. Chandra Bhushan also gave the closing remarks for the workshop and highlighted few of the recommendations from the workshop:-

1. Financial Institutions needs to come up with tailored financial products for the brick sector.

2. Clamps need to be banned for commercial brick manufacturing.

3. Regulatory bottlenecks needs to be conquered.

4. Bricks should be given priority in rating system of green buildings.

Mr. Bhushan also stressed upon stakeholders to meet once again and finalise the National Brick Mission before it can be presented to Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. 

 

For more details, contact:

Mr. Rahul Kumar
Centre for Science and Environment
Tel:- 011 29955124 Ext. – 251
Email:- s_rahul@cseindia.org