Dam in Kenya to be constructed with World Bank support

The World Bank will support the construction of a dam in Kenya to provide enough water to residents. This follows a financial agreement that was signed by Kenya and the World Bank to the tune of US$ 200m to help in the construction of Mwache dam in Kwale County.

The agreement which was signed during climate talks in Paris is part of a larger project under the Paris Pact Flagship Project that targets to build resilient water systems in cities.

Mombasa County Governor Hassan Joho, who signed the deal along with Kenya’s Water and Irrigation Services Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, was pleased and said that the the construction of a dam in Kenya would ease the water deficit problem where the county only supplies 46,000 cubic meters to residents.

“This dam will give us surplus water that we will distribute to other counties,” Mr Joho said.

Other than the financing pledged to Kenya, World Bank has also guaranteed a further US$2.2bn to go towards conserving the Lake Chad basin which is experiencing a major water stress, also countries currently impacted by El Niño have been big winners at the Paris talks with the announcement that the European Union will provide US$125m to support the affected countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

The Paris talks have attracted a lot of international partnerships such as the Lima Paris Action Agenda, which is mobilizing large-scale financing to protect the most vulnerable people from the impact of climate change.

The funding is meant to bring life-saving emergency assistance and bolster overall resilience in the affected states. It will combine humanitarian and development assistance to address immediate nutrition, sanitation, health and housing needs.