‘No water, no life’: Iraq’s Tigris River in danger of disappearing

A farmer walks on the cracked, dried earth beside the Diyala River. In recent years the water by his home has become stagnant, poisoned, and is no longer even able to be used for his animals. Photograph: Emily Garthwaite

As a leader of one of the oldest gnostic religions in the world, Sheikh Nidham Kreidi al-Sabahi must use only water taken from a flowing river, even for drinking.

The 68-year-old has a long grey beard hanging over his simple tan robe and a white cap covering his equally long hair, which sheikhs are forbidden from cutting. He says he has never got ill from drinking water from the Tigris River and believes that as long as the water is flowing, it is clean. But the truth is that soon it may not be flowing at all.