Flooding affects 20,000 in Colombia

Bogota, Dec 15 (IANS) At least 20,000 people have been displaced in the latest flooding in northern Colombia already ravaged by an unusually long and disastrous rainy season, EFE reported Monday.

The city of Plato in Magdalena province, some 900 km north of Bogota, was flooded when the Magdalena river broke through a levee, inundating the entire metropolis and many neighbouring areas, Mayor Jose Santander Rosales said.

Colombia's rainy season, which started in mid-September, has lasted longer than usual, killing more than 60 people and affecting about one million.

The Environmental Research Institute said the rain should end this week, but the Andean nation's rivers, including the Magdalena, are above their safety levels and pose the danger of flooding more areas.