The World Bank has agreed on Thursday to provide funds to improve the water supply in Mombasa, the World Bank said in a statement.

Water and Irrigation Services Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, and Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho signed the agreement at the UN COP21 conference in Le Bourget, France, outside Paris.

The funding is to be used to improve the water supply to Kenya’s second-largest city, the statement said.

"In Mombasa, the coastal region of Kenya, water demand largely exceeds supply, with climate variability, droughts and floods taking its toll on poor people," the statement said.

"The Bank Group is funding a significant portion of the cost of a $500 million government program to boost water security and build climate resilience," the statement said.

The World Bank had made the water purchase agreement a condition for funding the development of  the Mwache dam in Mazeras, Kwale County, according to the statement.

The Mwache dam will supply 186,000 cubic metres of water a day to Mombasa after improvements. 

About 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have little or no access to clean water, according to UN statistics.