The Brickfields of Dhaka

by Inge Colijn

The Brickfields of Dhaka, photo ©Erna Ingeborg Colijn, 2023

The catastrophic air pollution in Dhaka and the damaged topsoil in the surrounding agricultural lands is mainly due to the presence of brick factories. In 2019 the government started destroying many of the illegal facilities which, followed by a slowdown in production during the pandemic, resulted in an improvement in air quality. Not for long however, when I was in Dhaka in December 2023 most brick factories in the Narayanganj area were up and running again.

The work normally takes place during the dry season from November to March. During the rest of the year many of these workers are unemployed and desperate. The conditions of work are dangerous and hard.

The rapidly growing capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka, is in ever need of building material for the construction of houses, shops, offices and schools. As a result brickfields with thousands of chimneys coughing up black smoke can be found in the outskirts of Dhaka. The traditional brick kilns are coal or wood fired and produce millions of cheap bricks. All the work is carried out by poorly paid workers, often migrants from the countryside. They live in makeshift accommodation arrayed around the kilns.

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The raw material needed for the bricks is clay, which is plentiful in the alluvial plains of the Buriganga river. On the perimeter of the fields workers dig out the mud and mix it with water and some chalk to produce a thick clay which is then transported by wheelbarrow to an empty field.

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The bricks are shaped by hand by packing the clay mixed with sand in a wooden mould that carries an imprint of the initials of the factory owner so that it can always be identified where the bricks came from. After some first drying all bricks are turned around and in the next step all stacked in endless rows around the field to dry further before they can be burned.

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Sometimes the process goes wrong, like when there are unexpected heavy late rains as happened during my visit in December 2023. Plastic sheets had quickly been placed over still wet bricks, but to no avail and so they had all to be carried away to the clay-winning area to be re-processed into clay.

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As soon as the bricks are completely dry they have to be carried to the firing chambers of the kiln, a job in particular carried out by women. On a little plank on their head they balance 8 or 10 bricks, each weighing 2.5 kgs and then lower themselves over a gangway into the kiln. A few may be lucky enough to have a little cart for transportation.

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In the firing chambers the bricks are stacked in such a way that there is space in between the rows for sand and glowing coal dust. On top a layer of broken or misfired bricks are placed and covered with soil. When the coal is ignited the bricks get baked and the temperature in these combustion chambers can reach 1000 degrees. Coal dust has to be added continuously until the smoke coming out of the enormous chimney is no longer black, a process that can take several days.

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As soon as the bricks are ready the layer of dirt and old bricks is removed and the men pile the freshly baked hot bricks on their head and the carry them away covered in dust and sand.

A working day may last 10 to 12 hours and a working week counts 6 or 7 days. For each round they receive a token and after cashing these in they earn some 20 dollars a week. As most of the time both parents are working, many young girls have to look after their small siblings.

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Transport of the bricks to construction sites takes place by truck or ship, but the last step is again carrying heavy weights on people’s head.

The labour involved in the entire process, from making bricks to transporting them to construction sites and followed by the actual construction is hard and arduous and the payment extremely poor. It is therefore amazing to see how good-humoured and friendly these people are. Most of them and their children will never get out of this predicament and never live in a properly built brick house themselves. The deposed Bangladeshi government promised to ban the traditional method of brick making by 2025, but everybody knows that this is unlikely to happen. It would stop the pollution, but create more unemployed.

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I visited the brickfields in Narayanganj with GMB Akash during a one on one photography workshop. Akash is not only an accomplished photographer, but an admirable humanitarian who assists many of the people he has photographed. Some of the poorest brick making communities were assisted with blankets and warm clothes during the winter. Schoolchildren in rural areas received bicycles to go to school, wheelchairs were provided to those in need of one and Akash has even built some houses for homeless elderly people.

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Inge Colijn took up photography as a teenager. Later, as a student of Cultural Anthropology she took a course in Ethnographic Photography. While working for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Inge always carried a camera with her in the field, but photography was more of an afterthought to her main job. After retiring from UNHCR Inge enrolled in photography workshops and got excited about street photography. She is part of a group of street photographers who regularly travel together.

Photos by Inge were shown at Women Street Photographers exhibitions in Brussels and Kuala Lumpur. Inge was a finalist in the 2021 Life Framer competition Street-Life, curated by Bruce Gilden. Two of her photos were included in the book Tales of the Unwritten, published in connection with the Exhibit Around exhibition at the 2021 Trieste Photo Days.