Industry Kathmandu Valley

Brick Factories in the Kathmandu Valley

Tall red & grey chimneys of numerous brick stone factories mark the landscape of many places in the Kathmandu Valley. One of the well known brick area are the surroundings of Harisiddhi in Lalitpur south of Kathmandu.
The bricks are made from the fertile soil where villagers cultivate rice & vegetables around the year, except during the brick production season which normally goes from January to May. The land owners rent their fields to the brick producers who cut the surface layer of the soil, put the in forms, pre heat them in the sun and then bake them in the big ovens. 

The Brick factories need a licence from the government to produce the bricks.

Workers of the Brick Factories

In a help their parents to generate extra income for the family. Almost all the workers come from far outside the Kathmandu Valley. (It is said that some of them are trapped in debts and forced to do the work by people who they owe money.) Lot of workers come from Bihar in India. They stay in Nepal for 5 months and then return to their families in Bihar, sometimes the whole family comes and they live in selfmade huts of the bricks.

Proces of brick making

- A hole of 1,5 feet is digged and water is put over the soil to make it wet
- The soil is than put in wooden frames to create the brick
- The bricks are dried in the sun for several days
- The bricks are backed in the ovens for several days.
- The bricks cool down

(The oven is made in an oval where the heat goes slowly in a round) 

A worker earns around 2100 rs a month (2007) which is less than 25 euro.

There is some critic on the factories since they are great poluters, destroy vertile land, and treat workers (humans and animals) not very well. 

At the moment there is a program (VSBK) to make the brick factories cleaner and better for there workers.

The Tribhuvan University is doing research if char can replace the coakes as fuel for the chimneys.

On the Photo above you see workers in front of their temporary houses at one the Brick Factories in Kathmandu Valley. On the photo down you workers putting gravel on top of the bricks. All bricks has to be covered with gravel before the oven will heat the bricks. 

Links:

Ban Blood Bricks