Brick kilns has 'huge' environmental cost as they emit black carbons and cause loss of valuable top soil, experts today said and called for a ban on such "inefficient" kilns and enforcement of stringent emission standards.
"Brick making from clay--an industry which is concentrated largely in China and the South Asian region (including India)-- has huge environmental costs.
"From emissions of black carbon to the loss of valuable top soil. It is also an industry that's here to stay, considering clay bricks are the mainstay of construction," Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) today said in a statement quoting experts who took part in 'Anil Agarwal Dialogue 2015'.
The experts stressed on the use of clean technology for brick kilns and need to find the alternative building materials that were less polluting.
"The options to offset the environmental impacts which was agreed by speakers range from improvement in technology of brick kilns, ban on inefficient kilns and enforcement of stringent emission standards to finding alternative building materials that are less polluting," the statement said.
Deputy Director General of CSE, Chandra Bhushan, while elaborating on the issue, said that India alone consumes 350 million tonne of topsoil and clay to make some 200 billion bricks.
"There is growing concern about the environmental impacts that such a scale of production leads to. The question is how to make brick kilns' production clean and find alternatives which are affordable and yet sustainable to meet the huge housing requirements of our regions," he said.
Bhushan said that countries of the South Asia have a massive "under-construction" agenda which is as much as 70 per cent of India which was yet to be built.
