One of the world’s largest movable deserts is the Taklimakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uyghur Region of the People’s Republic of China. The Taklimakan Desert Highway is one of the world’s first high-grade highways using virescene, combat desertification and sand fixation greenery irrigated by drip irrigation.
90% of the irrigation systems on the Taklimakan Desert Highway project are provided by EAC.
At 520 km long, this irrigation system lies 80 meters wide and provides pressure-compensated drip irrigation pipes on both sides of the highway.
The total annual water consumption of the project is less than 6 million cubic meters.
The planted seedlings of shelterbed ecological engineering irrigated by this system runs at more than 18 million trees.
The total irrigated forest area is more than 3,000 hectares.
The stretch of highway that runs across the desert in Xinjiang is also known as the “Sea of Death”. Drip irrigation systems along this stretch, known as the Xinjiang Tarim Oilfield desert highway, set the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest irrigation system.
Because of the importance of this project and its huge expense, the Tarim Command (the project funding source) held a six year, repeated test cycle and invited all international and domestic firms to compete. In the course of the experiment, EAC irrigation lines proved their anti-clogging nature, anti-ageing resistance, and high stability, far out-performed much larger international competitors and won the contract. The project was completed in September 2005 and years later the EAC systems are still going strong despite harsh weather conditions including 60-70 degree temperature differentials in a single day.