When the wind blows from the north, the black greasy dust pouring from the factory chimneys coats the nearby homes of workers. It gets in through the cracks in windows and doors, it settles on the bedding, on clothes and inside lungs.
Poverty and this oily filth are the constant companions of the 500 labouring families in the factory complex, on the outskirts of Kut, in southern Iraq. The pollution is something they live with and die from.
With faltering reconstruction underway after the American invasion, the demand for bricks has quickly risen and so has brick production. But while the oil-fired kilns are being resurrected and jobs created, working conditions remain appalling. Child labour is the rule not the exception, industrial accidents are common and protective clothing unheard of.
Children as young as seven years old work alongside the adults, rather than make the long trip to the nearest school, which costs money their families can ill afford. Even heavily pregnant women work in the violent heat of the ovens, with only scarves over their mouths to stop them choking on the dust.
The central government and local authorities, headquartered in Kut - a short drive away - have long threatened to close factories that do not improve working conditions and reduce pollution. Council officials say they have closed three factories in the last year.
In practice, however, wealthy factory owners easily circumvent controls, aided by political instability and rampant corruption. And so the factories stay open.
Such complexes, some with dozens of kilns and chimneys, are a common sight in Iraq and employ tens of thousands of people nationwide. US military commanders overseeing reconstruction projects helped to get some of them, including the huge Narhwan complex east of Baghdad, restarted after years of sanctions and violent insurgency had forced their closure.
The theory behind the projects was that employment opportunities would help prevent angry young men from becoming militants.
In Kut’s brick factories that has not happened. Locals said the grim living conditions had left residents disillusioned with democracy and were turning the ovens into an incubator of despair and radicalism.
Pictures by Phil Sands, all photos copyright Makoto Photographic Agency and the photographer. Reproduction in any form without permission prohibited.
