How to Make a Brick - A Day in the Life of a Brick Factory Worker

"The heat from this process is intense. The men working on the brick hill must wear wooden shoes as these provide the best insulation from the heat. This task is especially difficult and hard during the heat of the day. The combination of a summer day and the heat from the brick kiln can result in temperatures of around 50°C at the brick kiln."

In a number of our recent blogs we have talked about brick factories and specifically those in Pakistan. We thought it would be good to explain the process of brick manufacturing based on what one of our Directors, Manfred Ewikowski, saw at the brick factories and what we have learned from the New Rivers Pakistan team.

The following account is based on general working conditions in brick factories. We have not gone into the specific roles and the nuanced hierarchy within a brick factory. The aim of this article is simply to familiarise you with what it takes to make a brick in Pakistan and the human cost involved in making bricks. Please understand that this article is a generalised account of what occurs within most brick factories. There is much more to the story of brick factories and people who work there than what is covered in this article.

Early morning

I wake up a little before the sunrise mostly due to the fact that it is too cold in my home and I want to make sure that there is a small fire going before my children wake up. There is no food for breakfast. The only meal that we had yesterday was soup made of water and chilli peppers.

I leave the house with my family still sleeping, knowing that they will be awake soon enough. I head over to the clay pit to begin the first process of brick making. I mix the clay with coarse salt and water. Early in the morning the clay is very cold but I am grateful that it is not yet winter, when the clay will be covered with a layer of frost. In fact, in a few hours I will be grateful for the cold start to my day as the temperatures on the brick factory will soon be in excess of 40°C. I do not have many tools to mix the clay so I simply use a spade or a hoe, and at times my bare hands. I begin turning over the clay and mixing it with the salt and water. I need to make sure that I have enough clay for my family to form somewhere between 1000 to 1500 bricks today. It will take me approximately one to two hours to fully mix the clay.

Mid-morning

My children and wife arrive just before I finish mixing the clay. I know my children are hungry but I try to ignore their requests for food. There is a lot of work still to be done today and there is no guarantee that we will get paid. Hopefully, we will receive some payment for the bricks we have made. It would be really wonderful if we could buy a few vegetables to make soup for dinner tonight. I try not to think about what will happen if we do not get paid. I now take some clay in a makeshift wheelbarrow over to the drying fields at the brick factory.

Drying fields are cleared areas of the brick factory where green bricks are formed and then left to dry in the sun. My family and I will take turns breaking up the clay into smaller sections which are then placed into a mould. The mould is turned over and removed leaving a formed green brick. We will continue making these bricks in our allocated place until the clay runs out. Hopefully my calculations are correct and we are able to produce somewhere between 1000 and 1500 bricks. Each family is required to produce this many bricks each day and there are consequences if we fail to do so. Not least of which is not getting paid.

Forming bricks is back breaking and tiring work. My children are too young to help much with this task so my wife and I form most of the bricks. We try to form as many bricks as we can before the heat of the day slows us down. There is no clean water to drink at the factory but we have no choice but to drink whatever water is available. This week has been a good week as neither my wife nor I or our children have been too sick from the water that we drink. During the hottest parts of the day, you do not stop to think about what is in the water. You simply drink whatever water you can find to survive.

Early afternoon

Surprisingly, we managed to get our bricks formed and the clay used up by the early afternoon. Today has been a good day. We formed 1500 green bricks. My wife and the children are fairly tired, as am I, but there is more work to be done. I send my family back to our home to rest and to escape from the heat of the day. The manager comes and inspects some of the bricks that we have made earlier in the week and they have been sufficiently dried so they can now be transferred to the brick kiln for firing. There is already a group of men working to move the bricks on a small donkey cart from the drying fields to the brick kiln, which is also on the factory site. I want my family’s bricks to make it through the process as quickly as possible so, despite my fatigue, I agree to help them move our bricks. It is not a long trip from the drying fields to the brick kiln but it is tedious work. The donkey cart cannot be overloaded as I want to avoid any bricks falling off and being damaged. The donkey is also suffering from the heat so I need to make sure that the loads are not too big. I need the donkey to work for the entire day.

Once the bricks arrive at the brick kiln, they need to be stacked in a certain way to allow the air flow from the firing process to bake each brick evenly. I want to make sure that all the bricks that my family has produced become the highest grade brick possible as this will ensure that I get paid for the bricks that we produced. Stacking the bricks is a difficult job as they are stacked roughly about two people high. Before the sun goes down, I have moved the bricks that my family has made to the brick kiln so they can be baked.

I do not normally help with the brick baking process as it is a specialist job and there are special specific managers and workers who undertake these tasks. However, there are times when there are not enough men to bake the bricks and I occasionally help with this process. The process itself of baking a brick is relatively simple although it is very dangerous. Once approximately 5000 bricks have been stacked in one section of the brick kiln, a combination of firewood and coal is placed in the gaps between the bricks. A layer of soil is then placed over top of the coal and bricks. The firewood and coal is then set alight. For the next eight hours, coal is added to the fire through small holes which have been dug in the gaps between the bricks. 

The heat from this process is intense. The men working on the brick hill must wear wooden shoes as these provide the best insulation from the heat. This task is especially difficult and hard during the heat of the day. The combination of a summer day and the heat from the brick kiln can result in temperatures of around 50°C at the brick kiln.

The dangerous part

Working on the brick kiln is a dangerous job. The gaps between the bricks are not clearly marked. It is only through practice and experience that workers learn to safely navigate the top of a brick kiln. Even then, accidents happen. Ensuring a constant temperature throughout the brick firing process is a tiring job which requires constant focus. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for men to fall in between the spaces between the rows of bricks. There is little that can be done to save anyone who falls into the fire between the rows of bricks. The fire is too intense and the brick stacks are too high for anyone to be able to reach in and rescue someone who has fallen into the brick kiln fire.

I remember on two occasions when I had to retrieve the body of someone who had fallen. It was approximately one day after they had fallen in before the bricks were cool enough for us to enter the brick kiln. By then all that was left of them was some of their bones.

Approximately 24 hours after the bricks have been baked, the soil can be removed from the top of them and they can be inspected. The bricks are graded and placed in their different categories to be sold to the customers. It is at this point that I will be paid for any of my bricks that passed inspection. Generally, I need at least 1000 fully finished bricks to be paid. A portion of my wages will be applied to the debt I owe to the factory owner. This debt appears never ending as it was a debt that originally was owed by my father. The debt has now been allocated to my family since my father died last year.

The remainder of what I will get paid will be enough for me to buy some vegetables so that my family will hopefully have enough food for two meals. If any of my children get sick I have to decide between trying to find some low cost medicine or buying them food. I know they need both but I cannot be guaranteed that I will get paid each day so I need to choose the best way to spend the little money we receive.

The day is done

Today has been a good day as we have been paid for 1000 bricks so I know my family will have a meal tonight. I am a bit worried because my youngest child has developed a very bad cough this past week. The air around the brick factory is very poor and we rarely see the sky because of the smoke coming from the brick kiln.

I know that tomorrow will be a repeat of today just like today was a repeat of yesterday, last month and last year. The only thing I know to do is to make bricks. But even if I wanted to do something else to better provide for my family I do not have that choice. I do not have the money to buy my freedom by paying off my family’s debt. It is unlikely that I will ever be able to earn enough to be able to repay the debt that my family owes to the brick owner.

NOTE: Videos in this blog have been taken by our team of real brick factory workers.

Join Our Mission:

We at New Rivers Enterprises are building our investment funds as we continue to work towards leasing a Brick Factory in Lahore, Pakistan. We are almost at our target: read on for the details of the opportunity before us .....

Our team in Lahore has been working very hard to develop and negotiate a unique opportunity to lease a brick factory.

For a fraction of the cost of buying a brick factory, New Rivers can operate this factory for the next three years. The potential returns on this investment are significant as we will be receiving the revenue from a factory which is currently operational (the brick kiln is baking bricks as you read this blog) without the cost of purchasing the factory.

Most importantly, we can provide better pay and conditions to the 30 families currently living at the factory. This opportunity is a significant step in our journey to disrupt slave-based practices in the brick making industry in Lahore.

Our aim is for our Lahore team to be running this factory 'The New Rivers Way' within the next month or so (and we are on the way to making this happen). We need to reach A$75,000.00 in investment to:

• Pay Rent for the first 18 months

• Meet the First Month's Production Expenses

• Provide Clean Drinking Water by Installing a Bore Well and Pump

• Open a School for the 45 to 50 children living at the factory

• Build a Tandoor for "Industrial Scale" Chapati Production for the Families

For more information on how you can invest head to our website. Or you can contact us via email, especially if you have any specific questions about the rental of this brick factory.

We are always interested in feedback and new ideas that people may have with respect to changes that can be made at the brick factories and any other businesses that New Rivers is involved in. We look forward to hearing from you - email us at info.newrivers@gmail.com.

Pictured: Manfred, Michelle (centre) and the New Rivers Team