Thousands of workers in southern Pakistan spend their lives mining and cooking limestone. The process releases plumes of toxic smoke, polluting the environment and poisoning workers.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00 (heart beating)
00:01 Cooking limestone is one of the most dangerous jobs
00:05 in the world.
00:06 These handmade kilns burn for 24 hours straight.
00:11 And workers like Parvez Sheikh
00:14 have to feed the fire constantly,
00:16 breathing toxic fumes and risking severe burns.
00:22 (speaking in foreign language)
00:27 (metal clanking)
00:30 Many workers can't afford an education
00:36 and are stuck in these jobs for life.
00:39 Gulsher Ali and his seven sons mine limestone
00:44 from these cliffs every day,
00:45 setting up dynamite explosions
00:48 without any protective equipment or supervision.
00:51 (water splashing)
00:57 (speaking in foreign language)
01:02 Limestone is a crucial ingredient in all kinds of products,
01:06 from paint to cement and even sugar.
01:08 So why is it so hard to break out of this generational trade?
01:13 And what makes handling limestone such a risky business?
01:18 This part of Sindh province looks barren,
01:25 even though it's rich in minerals.
01:27 But cutting massive rocks of limestone from these cliffs
01:32 without machinery takes hours.
01:34 So workers set up explosives.
01:38 It takes about an hour to dig three feet deep holes.
01:42 (speaking in foreign language)
01:47 Gulsher Ali was just 12
01:52 when he first learned this job from his father.
01:55 He has taught all of his seven sons.
01:58 They're not trained to handle gunpowder
02:01 and anything can go wrong.
02:03 (speaking in foreign language)
02:07 Gulsher adds a layer of fertilizers
02:13 and covers the hole with stones.
02:15 Lighting the dynamite is the most dangerous part.
02:21 They only have a couple of minutes to walk away.
02:24 (speaking in foreign language)
02:28 There isn't any official data in Pakistan
02:45 on the number of deaths, injuries,
02:47 and illnesses in the industry.
02:48 But Gulsher remembers how he was injured nine years ago.
02:53 (speaking in foreign language)
02:57 Still, he spends six hours a day
03:18 moving and breaking rocks
03:20 that weigh as much as 100 pounds.
03:23 (speaking in foreign language)
03:27 The Pakistani government owns this land
03:39 and allows people to mine there for $32 a year.
03:43 Gulsher says his ancestors used to have a permit,
03:47 but he's never applied for one himself.
03:49 And he says no one bothers him.
03:52 (gentle music)
03:54 They wrap up work by 10 a.m.
03:56 and get together for a quick cup of tea.
03:58 Gulsher's sons dropped out of school in the eighth grade
04:03 and also work here full-time.
04:05 (speaking in foreign language)
04:10 Today, they've collected enough to fill a truck.
04:20 They're selling the load to a nearby kiln
04:22 for 2,500 rupees, or just $8.
04:26 And after splitting it,
04:27 each person will be left with just $2 a day.
04:30 These men at the kiln break the rocks
04:38 into even smaller pieces
04:39 and stack them around the furnace.
04:44 It can take three days to build a single kiln,
04:48 which can process up to 1,000 tons of limestone every week.
04:52 This kind of kiln dates back to the Roman Empire
04:58 and was brought to this region by the British.
05:00 Most European countries have ditched them
05:04 for modern machinery.
05:05 The final structure can be as high as 33 feet.
05:10 They leave a narrow opening at the very top
05:14 for the smoke to escape.
05:16 (fire crackling)
05:19 Then workers start building a fire
05:21 by loading up dried farm fronds from date trees nearby.
05:25 Parvez Sheikh has been doing this work
05:29 for more than half his life.
05:30 (speaking in foreign language)
05:36 He keeps feeding the fire until the kiln gets as hot
05:40 as 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit.
05:45 (speaking in foreign language)
05:49 Sizzling hot stones once fell on Parvez from the stacked dome.
05:58 (speaking in foreign language)
06:04 The limestone has to bake for at least 24 hours.
06:11 Five workers take 20-minute shifts
06:14 watching the blaze and adding more leads.
06:17 Parvez and his brother have worked here
06:20 since they were teenagers.
06:21 (speaking in foreign language)
06:26 Parvez has years of experience,
06:39 but he earns only $9 a week,
06:43 also much lower than Sindh's minimum wage.
06:45 And sometimes he has to take out loans
06:48 from the kiln owner to run his household.
06:50 (speaking in foreign language)
06:55 These furnaces and a few others nearby are privately owned,
07:10 and Parvez's cousin, Pappu Sheikh, manages them.
07:12 But he says there's not much he can do to help the workers.
07:17 (speaking in foreign language)
07:22 That's why it's hard to find new workers.
07:36 (speaking in foreign language)
07:40 Parvez works tirelessly
07:46 because he can't afford to take any time off.
07:49 (speaking in foreign language)
07:54 The fire at the furnace eventually goes out on its own,
08:03 and the limestone is left to cool for 24 hours.
08:07 Then all nine workers help break down the kiln.
08:11 The cooked limestone is powdery,
08:16 and Parvez gets coated in dust.
08:19 But workers can't just wash it off
08:24 because quicklime produces heat when it's mixed with water,
08:28 and that can burn you.
08:31 (speaking in foreign language)
08:34 Pakistan exported more than half a million dollars
08:41 worth of limestone in 2021.
08:44 The kiln we filmed at sends it to Bangladesh,
08:48 China, and Sri Lanka.
08:50 Here in Pakistan,
08:53 it's commonly mixed with water to create paint.
08:58 (speaking in foreign language)
09:01 Limestone is crucial for construction
09:09 because it's so versatile.
09:11 It's soft enough to be shaped into bricks,
09:13 but still durable.
09:15 Roads and highways are often paved with it.
09:19 And it's the building blocks of iconic landmarks,
09:23 like the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Parthenon.
09:27 These days, it's a key ingredient in cement,
09:30 which is made by heating limestone
09:32 and mixing it with clay or shale.
09:34 But the production of cement and concrete
09:38 is responsible for 9% of the world's CO2 emissions
09:42 every year.
09:44 And kilns like these are also major pollutants,
09:47 releasing poisonous gases
09:49 like sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide.
09:53 Experts say that's speeding up global warming.
09:56 And southern Pakistan is getting hit.
10:00 Here in Rori,
10:02 temperatures regularly reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
10:06 It's so unbearably hot
10:10 that thousands of residents have moved away from the region.
10:13 Harvests have also become unpredictable
10:21 in a region that's known for farming.
10:24 That's why many locals, like Parvez,
10:28 have turned to mining.
10:29 He stops by a goat farm on his way home
10:34 to pick up milk for his four-year-old daughter.
10:36 She was born 15 years after he got married,
10:43 and he wants a better life for her and for his family.
10:47 (speaking in foreign language)
10:51 But there aren't many other jobs in this village,
11:04 so Parvez keeps toiling away at the kiln.
11:08 (speaking in foreign language)
11:12 (gentle music)
11:15 (speaking in foreign language)
11:19 (gentle music)
11:23 (gentle music)
11:26 (gentle music)
11:29 (gentle music)
11:31 (gentle music)
11:34 [MUSIC]