A 14-year-old Chinese boy gives a technological lesson with an ‘anti-desert’ system to water the Great Green Wall

Jia Mingxuan, a teen wonder, has developed a condensation irrigation system that directs water collected inside pipes to the base of trees in areas with little rainfall and at risk of desertification. His system captures moisture from the air and delivers it to newly planted seedlings in the dry regions of China, earning him several awards.

The invention is built from simple steel tubes and reused plastic bottles, which together create a temperature gradient that produces condensation. Jia’s grandfather recalls that in the 1960s the area received only 380 millimetres of rain per year, a level of scarcity that led to moving sand dunes and exposed soil.

Jia first had the idea when he noticed steam condensing on the cold tiles in his kitchen.

How the mechanism works

The system relies on a controlled temperature difference between the exposed and buried sections of the tube. This allows a light flow of wind to circulate inside, causing the moisture in the air to condense even in very dry conditions. It offers a low cost solution that can supplement digital methods in places where technological infrastructure is difficult to install.

Jia is now working with a research team in Shanghai to improve the system’s stability. They are studying bioplastics and lightweight alloys as potential alternatives to increase durability and support large scale production without raising environmental impacts.

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