The brick workers in the Kathmandu Valley

Brick factories have been operating in the Kathmandu Valley for some 3000 years. Many monuments in the area such as the squares, temples and houses were built with terracotta bricks. These brick factories have become an air pollution disaster zone. The people who work in them are impoverished farmers from the rural parts of Nepal and India. The industry is seasonal and operates mostly for about six months from December to June. One family of four could make 2,000 bricks a day, earning around 1,200 rupees. They live alongside the factories during the working season, their babies watching from hammocks slung nearby, their children sometimes helping or playing nearby.

Brick demand has increased dramatically over recent decades with the demand for housing. It is estimated that about 1,100 Brick kilns are in operation in Nepal. Kathmandu Valley is vulnerable to air pollution problem due to its topography, which restricts the wind movement and allows pollutants to remain within the valley. Brick kilns, operating in the Valley, are known to be a prime cause of air pollution. There are currently more than 200 brick kilns operating in Kathmandu valley deteriorating its air quality and degrading the health of the people living near the kilns. Other environmental costs of the brick kilns are the reduction in the soil fertility, reduced visibility and drying ground water sources.

Although work conditions are inhumane, the brick industry provides jobs to thousands of unskilled labourers. Over 175,000 workers, of whom as many as 60,000 are children, labour in unhealthy and unsafe conditions in Nepal’s brick kilns. Brick workers are some of the most marginalized of unskilled workers, often bonded by debt to exploitive labour brokers, and working at wages insufficient to pay off “recruiter” advances. Unrepresented, unregulated, and for the most part unwanted, brick kiln workers have seen little progress on social, economic, or human rights issues.

Cheaper, cleaner and more energy efficient technologies are available, yet brick factories continue to spew out thick black smoke from their stacks on the city outskirts. Kathmandu’s demand for bricks grows 15 per cent annually, as the construction industry booms. Unless cleaner kilns are used, the Valley’s air is bound to get dirtier.

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