Every year, in the pre-monsoon season (March - May), the Kathmandu valley experiences a double burden of exposure to high levels of forest fire (smoke) and air pollution. This year, too, was no different with the situation escalating toward its worst during the last week of March and the beginning of April.
In the race for rapid economic growth and abrupt demographic changes in the Hindu Kush Himalaya, including rural to urban migration, it is crucial for urbanisation and development to be planned. The choice of construction material in this development is vital, in terms of quality, safety, duration, cost, and taking into account health – especially as 40% of global emissions come from the construction sector. Bricks tell the story of the region’s most preferred and traditionally used building material in the region.
Asia dominates global brick production, contributing 86.87% of the world’s total brick production. At the forefront of the brick industry is China, producing over one trillion bricks annually, followed by the South Asian region, home to nearly a quarter of global brick production, producing 31 billion bricks annually. Beyond its economic and infrastructural significance, the brick industry employs a huge workforce. In Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, brick industries employ over 16 million people. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, it employs 1.3 million people and has about 20,000 brick kilns with an estimated 1.5% contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP).
However, the brick sector remains largely informal and faces pressing environmental and social challenges in South Asia. Unlike China, which has adopted a modernised brick-making process, other South Asian countries continue to rely on traditional, and less-efficient methods with high emissions – including particulate matter (PM), black carbon (BC) or soot (which is formed by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuels, and biomass), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2) – which contribute to the region’s air pollution crisis. These issues are further compounded by multiple underlying social issues. The significant number of brick workers comprises an internal and regional migrant workforce, many of whom work and migrate with families, including children, often working and living in precarious conditions. Issues such as child labour, poor occupational health and safety, and inadequate sanitation persist, while gender disparities – differences in people’s access to resources, status and level of wellbeing, based on gender – are driven by differences in skills, wages, and the nature of work undertaken, making the transformation of the sector critical.
ICIMOD’s brick initiative – paving the way for transition
Recognising these challenges, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has been working towards mitigating black carbon and CO2 emissions from brick production in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region since 2014. ICIMOD launched the Air Pollution Solutions Initiative in 2017 as the lead implementer of the Clean Brick Initiative of the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), formerly the Department for International Development (DFID) in Nepal.
This initiative focused on reducing emissions, and promoting cleaner, more efficient brick-making technologies. A cornerstone of this initiative is the promotion of ‘zigzag’ technology, which enhances brick production efficiency and reduces emissions significantly. In zigzag kilns, bricks are arranged in a zigzag pattern, which allows hot air to flow more efficiently, improving heat transfer from flue gases to the bricks. Studies show that zigzag technology can reduce emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by 35% and lower CO2 emissions by approximately 30%. PM2.5 present serious health hazards to communities, causing human illnesses and affecting animal and plant life.
ICIMOD co-developed a Social Code of Conduct to help improve the working and living conditions of workers and their families to promote safer working conditions and a socially responsive brick sector, with notable implementation in Nepal and Pakistan.
Transition to cleaner and socially responsive brick industries in Punjab, Pakistan
Punjab province in central-eastern Pakistan has emerged as a notable leader in the transition toward cleaner and socially responsive brick production. The transition process began in 2017 with the introduction of zigzag kilns by ICIMOD with the support of the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination (MoCC), Pakistan. Since then, ICIMOD has collaborated with key stakeholders to facilitate the shift from traditional, high-polluting and less-efficient kilns known as ‘fixed chimney bull’s trench kiln’ (FCBTK) to zigzag kilns. Collaborators include the Brick Kiln Owners’ Association of Pakistan (BKOAP) and various government departments like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Environment Protection Department (EPD) Punjab, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), and the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA). ICIMOD has conducted a series of capacity-building training sessions in cities across Pakistan, including Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Islamabad, Lahore, and Multan.
Punjab is at the forefront of adopting zigzag technology after the EPD Punjab enacted a policy mandating the conversion of traditional FCBTKs to zigzag technology in 2020. To date, about 11,000 kilns have been successfully converted to zigzag kilns in Punjab province. This shift also aligns with Pakistan’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) 2021, which prioritises the conversion of conventional kilns to zigzag kilns as a key tracking indicator for lower emissions.
EPD Punjab has played a crucial role in facilitating this transition by enforcing regulatory compliance, conducting extensive awareness campaigns, and offering technical support for kiln owners. Additionally, the department has collaborated with stakeholders, including the BKOAP, to ensure a smooth shift towards more environmentally friendly technology. It has also implemented a monitoring mechanism to track kiln conversions, imposed fines on non-compliant units, and enforced the prohibition of the use of substandard fuels to further reduce carbon emissions.
As part of its ongoing efforts, EPA Punjab has allocated unique identity cards – which include a geolocation tag and digitised identity numbers for each brick kiln – and carried out e-mapping for real-time monitoring and regulatory oversight. This initiative enhances transparency and contributes to effective tracking of kiln operations and environmental compliance. Furthermore, the department has launched a ‘Joining Carbon Hotspots with Carbon Sinks’ initiative, promoting drives to plant trees and shrubs around brick kilns to mitigate carbon emissions and improve air quality.
This proactive approach, coupled with the voluntary uptake of zigzag technology by the members of the BKOAP Punjab, has demonstrated success. As Hamid Sheikh, Director General of EPA-Punjab, remarked at the training on ‘Scaling Cleaner and Socially Responsive Brick Production in Sindh’ organised by jointly organized by EPD-Punjab, ICIMOD, BKOAP, Sindh People’s Housing for Flood Affectees (SPHF), Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) : “Punjab’s brick kiln sector’s adoption of zigzag technology is a commendable step towards ensuring cleaner air in Punjab, and is a success story for other provinces to learn from.” The lessons learnt from here offer a scalable model for other provinces to follow, paving the way to achieve nationwide environmental benefits.
Cross-provincial learning between Punjab and Sindh
The urgency for cleaner and more efficient brick technology is even more pronounced in Sindh province, southeastern Pakistan, particularly after the devastating floods in 2022 that severely impacted homes, and infrastructure. Currently, there are an estimated 5,000 operational brick kilns, primarily consisting of clamp kilns (traditional method of baking bricks, done by stacking unbaked bricks with fuel under or among them, then igniting the fuel) and FCBTKs, which are highly polluting and inefficient. With the high demand for bricks in the province’s reconstruction efforts after the flood, Punjab’s successful adoption of zigzag technology offers a proven model for Sindh to follow, aligning with national climate policies and green recovery initiatives.
Minar Thapa Magar, National Coordinator at Sindh Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform (SHRRP) highlighted the critical need for this transition:
“After the 2022 floods, Sindh People’s Housing for Flood Affectees (SPHF) and the Government of Sindh had to rapidly rebuild over two million homes for families who lost everything. But reconstruction must also be climate conscious. With an estimated 60 billion bricks required solely for flood infrastructure reconstruction in Sindh, the transition of brick industries to zigzag is essential to lower emissions, reduce health impacts, improve brick productivity and protect jobs.”
Based on the urgency and the need for capacity building, EPD Punjab, ICIMOD, BKOAP, SHRRP, SPHF Catholic Relief Services (CRS), and the Asian Development Bank jointly organised a capacity-building training session in Lahore in December 2024.
The master trainers from BKOAP, backed by EPA Punjab and in support from the Federation of Nepal Brick Industries (FNBI) – under the regional network of the Federation of Asian Brick Kiln Association (FABKA) – imparted the technical and hands-on field-based training to 33 participants from Sindh. Training participants included brick kiln owners, officials from Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA), and representatives from SHRRP and SPHF.
During the event, the Punjab Parliamentary Secretary, Kanwal Liaquat, emphasised that clean air is a constitutional right of citizens of Pakistan. She also highlighted Punjab’s commitment to sharing their knowledge from the brick sector with other stakeholders, not just within the country but also across borders. She said: “The introduction of Punjab’s first ever climate change policy, smog mitigation plan, and a historic allocation of 100 billion rupees (PKR) for climate improvement show the government’s seriousness in tackling environmental challenges.”
Following the training, Kirshan Lal Panriya, one of the brick kiln owners from Umerkot city in Sindh, expressed his commitment to change his brick kiln: “I will convert my brick kiln into zigzag technology as the technology is helpful in producing less carbon, saving the environment, and reducing my investment cost”.
The Asian Development Bank has committed to supporting the conversion to zigzag kilns in Sindh by supporting five pilot kilns, and CRS will support one pilot kiln. These efforts mark a significant step towards cleaner brick production in Sindh.
Moving forward: A call for action
As this region’s brick sector continues to scale, the need for a sustainable transition, as demonstrated by Pakistan, has never been more crucial. The transition of the brick sector is not only about reducing emissions but also about building resilience and enhancing the livelihoods of millions of workers and communities across the region. The large share of brick industries operating across the region continue to impact both the health of the population and the environment. Brick workers, children, and neighbouring communities bear the brunt of exposure to the emission of black carbon and particulate matter that severely degrade air quality and human health. Moving forward, promoting and scaling the adoption of cleaner technologies and enforcing regulatory mechanisms that integrate the social safeguarding of brickworks is vital.