*Worst flooding in 50 years hits Uruguay*

11 May 2007 14:06:00 GMT

LONDON, May 11  - Some 12,000 people in central Uruguay have been driven
from their homes by the worst flooding to hit the country in half a
century, according to the United Nations, and forecasters say the rain
is likely to persist.

Most schools in the area are closed, electricity and phone lines are
down, farm land is submerged, water supplies are contaminated and sewage
systems flooded, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.

Thirty thousand people have been left without access to clean drinking
water, and OCHA said there was a risk from water-borne diseases in this
small South American nation, sandwiched between Argentina and the
southernmost tip of Brazil.

Water is being trucked to the provincial capital of Durazno, where the
Yi river overflowed, flooding the town's water supply.

Thousands of families have been evacuated to sports halls and municipal
buildings and more than 110,000 people have been affected overall by
flooding in seven of the country's 19 departments.

"The number of people affected by this flooding is expected to rise
further, especially as flood waters reach lower-lying areas", OCHA said.

The Uruguayan parliament declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, and
the United Nations said the government had requested its assistance to
cope with the disaster centred on the departments of Durazno, Soriano
and Treinta y Tres.

Thousands of houses - as well as local government buildings - have been
damaged in the floods. OCHA said the majority of people suffering from
the disaster were poor or from groups that are especially vulnerable in
emergencies, such as women, children and the elderly.

Uruguay's President Tabaré Vázquez visited the worst-affected
department, Durazno, where 6,000 people have been evacuated. The
departments of Tacuarembo, Florida, Cerro Largo y Rocha have also been hit.