Sharjah24 - AFP: The river is credited with helping to create civilization by supplying water to the biblical Garden of Eden.v

But the Tigris is dying right now.

When combined with its twin river, the Euphrates, it gave Mesopotamia the distinction of being the birthplace of civilization thousands of years ago. However, human activities and climate change have stifled its once-powerful flow across Iraq.

Despite being an oil-rich nation, Iraq is nonetheless impoverished due to decades of conflict, as well as desertification and droughts.

It is one of the five countries most sensitive to climate change, according to the UN, and has been hit hard by a string of natural disasters.

From April on, the land is blanketed in a layer of dust and temperatures regularly top 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).

The heat can reach scalding 50 degrees Celsius during the dreadful summers, which is close to the threshold of human endurance. Frequent power outages also prevent millions of people from using air conditioning.

Dams, the majority of which are upstream in Turkey, and declining rainfall have choked off the Tigris, which serves as a lifeline between the illustrious cities of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra.