Sara-Jade Govia

Seminar: Sustainable Infrastructure for Inclusive Green Growth

Sara-Jade Govia is the Water Sector Specialist at the Ministry of Public Utilities in her home country, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. In this capacity, she is responsible for the evaluation of the needs of the water sector and in response, seeks to identify and develop technical, regulatory, institutional and/or policy solutions. Sara-Jade also serves as the lead on a cross-functional initiative to adopt and implement Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Trinidad and Tobago. She also provides technical advice and crafts policy for the Government to: (i) protect and conserve water resources; and (ii) improve the water and wastewater utilities sector.

Sara-Jade began her career in the water sector within the engineering stream and moved to water resources management. Her experience is concentrated on geological and engineering practices through the design of water supply and wastewater systems, groundwater exploration, and environmental hydrology. Sara-Jade now applies her technical experience and knowledge in her advisory role with the Government.

Since 2012, she has been volunteering with the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), a regional non-governmental organization which lobbies Caribbean governments and development partners to build capacity in the water, wastewater and waste sectors. She is presently the Vice-President of the Executive Council. She coordinated the CWWA’s Annual Conference & Exhibition in Trinidad and Tobago in October 2016, which focussed on “Water & Waste Resources: Key Drivers of Sustainable Development in the Caribbean”.

Sara-Jade possess an MSc. in Environmental Technology specialising in water and the environment from Imperial College, London, United Kingdom and a BSc. from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in Geology (Major) and Geography (Minor). She also completed a range of professional courses in water resources management from the Public Utilities Board (Singapore), Columbia University (United States of America) and McGill University (Canada).