PESHAWAR, Feb 16: A United Nations joint assessment mission has launched a survey of the NWFP and adjoining tribal areas to evaluate the damage caused by rains, landslides and snowfall and provide emergency relief to affected people.

"The mission, comprising personnel of UN agencies, would assess the losses caused by recent rains and snowfall in three days, which would be followed by relief work there," Dr Quaid Saeed, coordination officer for the UN agencies, told Dawn.

After meetings the secretary health and relief commissioner, two teams, one in Mansehra and Battagram, and the other in Kohistan and Abbottabad, started surveys in collaboration with EDOs, DCOs and NGOs in the areas concerned.

Dr Quaid said relief teams had also been sent to Balochistan after a meeting of the heads of the UN agencies in Islamabad on Tuesday. So far, the health department and the flood relief commission had reported 296 deaths, while about 401 people were injured.

"We think that the number of casualties might be higher than the reported ones, because in some areas in Mansehra, Abbottabad and Kohistan, the roads are completely blocked and it is impossible to get correct information," he said.

Special forms had been sent to the WHO's surveillance officers in all 24 districts and Fata to conduct surveys of damages. They would receive all the relevant information from all the areas affected in the rains and then go for relief work, he said.

He said that presently there was no fund allocated by the UN to relief operation But soon the heads of the UN agencies would hold meetings and decide an action plan, he added.

"The mode of distributing relief goods and drugs would be decided after the completion of the survey," he added. However, he said the UN would try its level best to meet the needs of the rain's victims.

WHO's sub-office for the NWFP and Fata had been declared as coordinating cell for the activities of the UN Mission, which would receive latest information from the districts and pass them on to its country office in Islamabad.

He said the cabinet division, Islamabad, had given a helicopter for relief operations in the calamity-hit areas of the NWFP and Fata. Citing Unicef's survey, he said the situation in Swat was pathetic as there was no relief work in sight.

Reports compiled by Unicef from Dir district also suggested that the situation there was not bad, he said, adding that they still feared casualties and collateral damage in the inaccessible areas of these regions.