Not even 25 per cent of the brick kilns in the Kathmandu Valley are environment-friendly, pointed out the participants in a programme in the capital on Thursday.

According to RSS, the programme participants said this is because the brick kiln entrepreneurs are not environmentally conscious and they lack the environment-friendly technology as well as the appropriate know-how.

Although technical trainings on adopting environment-friendly technology are organised from time to time with support from various donor agencies, most brick kilns are not found adopting such technology. As a result, the problem remains the same, the participants rued.

The programme was organised by various stakeholder organisations including the Federation of Small and Cottage Industries.

President of the Brick Industries Federation Nepal Mahendra Chitrakar said 480 brick kilns in the country are registered with the Federation. He said although the practice of manufacturing bricks by employing environment-friendly technology and techniques has been initiated, the practice has o longer taken off following the stoppage of aid by the donor agencies.

Mechanical engineer Bhisma Pandit complained that the country's engineers and technicians were not paying any attention towards improving the technology in the brick kilns.

Another engineer Praveen Chhetri stressed the need of adopting what is called the VSBK technology in brick kilns for making them environment-friendly.

The VSBK technology that started in China in 1970 was brought in use in Nepal in 1991. The experts taking part in the programme suggested the brick entrepreneurs to employ the VSBK technology for increasing production as well as for keeping the health of the workers safe as well  as on environmental grounds. nepalnews.com