ISLAMABAD : As manyas 49 out of total 63 conventional brick kilns located within the federalcapital territory, which accounted for significant portion of choking airpollution, have been converted to zig-zag technology, a move that willsignificantly help mitigate the air pollution woes in the capital andsurrounding areas, said climate change and environmental coordinationministry senior official Muhammad Saleem.While four traditional brick kilns have been dismantled, remaining 10 air-polluting traditional brick kilns are presently being shifted on to theenvironmentally-friendly modern, cleaner zig-zag technology, the official added.The senior ministry official and media spokesperson, Muhammad Saleem stated that the traditional brickmanufacturing sector significantly contributes to the country’s breath-choking airpollution and greenhouse gas emissions, as such brick kilns relies on dirty energy sources for baking bricks, mainly coal, rubber and shoesoles as fuel, emitting lethal black carbon emissions into the atmosphere.But, now with the conversion to thezig-zag technology the cleaner brick kilns technology would help reduce levelsof the breath-choking carbon emissions by 60 percent and save their ownersenergy expenses by 30 percent, he added. “It’s indeed a great milestone theministry of climate change and Environmental Coordination (MoCC&EC) andPakistan Environmental Protection Agency Islamabad (Pak-EPA-Islamabad)supported by the Islamabad administration and other stakeholders managed toachieve the milestone with well-coordinated efforts despite various bottlenecksto fight escalating problem of air pollution in the capital city and its ruralareas,” the official Muhammad Saleem said.He highlighted that while most ofthe air-contaminating brick kilns were located in rural areas of the capitalcity, these adjoining areas would particularly benefit from the cleaner airafter the conversion of the traditional kilns to the cleaner brick-makingzig-zag technology. Explaining about the traditionalbrick-making process, which is highly health and environmentally-damaging, theministry’s media spokesperson said that such brick producing process consist ofhand-made bricks, which are baked in Fixed Chimney Bull’s Trench Kilns (FCBTK),a widely used brick firing technology in South Asian countries includingPakistan, ranked as the most contaminating techniques for brick production,resulting in myriad adverse social and environmental effects including airpollution, climate change, cardio-respiratory diseases, land use impacts anddeforestation.The traditional kiln types and fuels it burns, make it difficult to accurately identify the make-up of air pollutantsemitted by the sector, but they likely include sulfur oxides, nitrogen dioxide,carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide (CO2), forms of particulate matter (PM)including black carbon, and additional compounds released by burning coal andother fuels, the ministry official Muhammad Saleem highlighted.He also emphasised that the blackcarbon (a major component of soot from the brick kilns) is produced basicallyas a result of the incomplete combustion of fossil fuel and biomass. Besides,it is also notoriously known for its planet-warming impact on climate for being 460to 1500 times stronger than CO2.The ministry official explained thatthe black smoke emitted by the traditional brick kilns, transport andindustrial sectors is highly polluting and toxic, which is extremely dangerousfor the public health and environment as well as a key cause of blinding andbreath-suffocating smog. The black smoke is among the main causes of asthma,respiratory diseases, eye infections and other various lung-related diseasesin humans.The climate change and environmentalcoordination ministry media spokesperson Muhammad Saleem highlighted,“given the backdrop of adverse health and environmental impacts, the effortswere taken by the federal ministry for introducing the zig-zag technology to only mitigate the issues of not only the emission toxic black carbons that cause smog, but also overall air pollution in the federal capital and its adjoiningrural areas.”