An eight-year-old Mexican girl has constructed a solar water heater made entirely from discarded objects including hoses, glass panels from a former construction site, and logs.

Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz López’s invention has been awarded a prestigious science prize from Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM).

The young inventor says her project was aimed at slowing climate change by reducing the need for low-income people in her rural community to cut down trees for firewood.

In an interview for El Universal, Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz López said: “These are low-income people who don’t have the possibility to buy these heaters, so what they do is cut the trees to get firewood, which affects the world through climate change. So, what I did is make this project, this heater, from recycled objects that don’t hurt the environment.”

The young entrepreneur from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas constructed the heater on her family’s rooftop, with a little bit…