For the past few weeks, severe flooding in northern Bolivia has killed livestock and plagued farming communities, now struggling for food and worried about thousands of children.

The rotting cattle are going nowhere, and the stagnant waters are becoming increasingly contaminated.

This doctor worries about the children, who don't know better and are still drinking the water.

(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DOCTOR MARCIA RODRIGUEZ, SAYING:

"The water, as we know, is contaminated and is full of trash. That is why it is contaminated and now, the water level is beginning to drop and the children don't understand that the water is contaminated and it is not good. We explain that, but they still go into the water and drink the water."

The United Nations says some 77,000 Bolivian children have been affected by the flooding.

Doctors say they have seen an increase in water-born illness, and are trying to educate children about the dangers of consuming it -- to little av