“Come and destroy my kilns, if you want…”

In Hanoi, 1300 brick kilns remain operational, which churn out 1183 million bricks a year, discharging smoke to the environment every day.

Of the hundreds of brick kilns in Thai Binh province, more than 50 percent are located in 35 communes of Hung Ha district. There are at least 10 brick kilns in every commune. Especially, Doan Hung alone has 93 kilns, each of which can burn 14,000-20,000 bricks each time

Especially, the brick kilns are not located on the fields or river banks far from residents’ houses, but on the large paths linking hamlets and communes. This allows to take full advantage of the easy transport conditions to carry land, coal to the kilns and take finished bricks away for sale.

The visitors to Don Nong hamlet of Doan Hung commune would see tens of kilns located next to the residential quarters. The kilns give black smoke all year round, becoming the obsession of the local residents. The environment here has been seriously devastated with hundreds of thousands of square meters of land having turned into ponds after people get earth for brick production. Meanwhile, tens of hectares of rice fields have been burned by the smoke from the kilns.

Nguyen Van Su, the owner of a brick kiln, said that his brick kiln was set up in 2009 which cost him 100 million dong. The kiln can burn 60,000 bricks each time.

“If I have to stop burning bricks and dismount the kiln, my wife and I, two daughters and one son-in-law would become jobless. I am still owing 50 million dong to a bank,” Su said.

The struggle between the local authorities and the brick kiln owners is really very tough, because when the kilns are removed, they would lose their daily bread. In the last many years, the brick kilns have been bringing huge profits to the owners and generating jobs to local residents.

“If you want, you can come and destroy my brick kilns. I have no machine,” is the words local authorities’ officers usually hear from the kiln bricks when they come to request to stop burning bricks. The words have been described as the challenge thrown down by the people to the local authorities.
Farmers should be given fishing rod

If the brick kilns are removed, a lot of local residents would become jobless. The operational brick kilns in Hung Ha district of Thai Binh province are bringing 5000-6000 jobs. How will be the fate of the workers of the brick kilns, who earn 2-3 million dong now, when they leave the brick kilns?
Experts have pointed out that local residents still have been trying to hold out amid the campaigns of eliminating brick kilns because they do not want to give the “fishing rods” which can bring fishes to feed them every day.

Therefore, if local authorities want to remove the kilns, they should give other “fishing rods” to help them maintain their means of subsistence, or show them the solutions to the backward brick kilns.
Hanoi seems to have succeeded in finding a way out for the current brick kilns by using the smoke treatment system which does not cause environment pollution. With the system, smoke is not smelled in the places where brick kilns are situated, while the vegetables remain safe. However, experts believe that this should not be the long term solution.