The ||Kharas Regional leadership has welcomed the anticipated salmon farming development near Luderitz, urging for meaningful community participation and beneficiation.  
Various stakeholders met to deliberate and craft the way forward and gauge project progress.

Councillor for Keetmanshoop Urban Constituency, Ulrich Davids stated, "Its success is ultimately measured by the extent to which it benefits the people of the region and Namibia as a whole. We must therefore ensure that local communities are not merely observers of development taking place in their midst. They must be active participants and mindful beneficiaries. Local employment, local procurement, skills transfer, opportunities for emerging entrepreneurs and responsible environmental management must remain central to this process." 

The engagement provided an opportunity for the stakeholders to share their expectations and identify opportunities that could benefit communities. 

"We maybe have a conversation with the leaders at some point so that they leverage a quota, saying for ||Kharas from the 100% jobs that we have, 20% we negotiate a quota of 20%. I am using a very conservative…and say you marine biologist, you need fishing inspectors, you need that because it is a highly technical field, and say we are committing ex-million dollars to capacitate southerners, highlighted Keetmanshoop resident Ulrich Freyer.

Councillor of Berseba Constituency, Raymond Jossop, added, "I was asking myself why it was not already starting by yesterday for us to have those cages on the banks of the dam and for the constituency and the region to already positively benefit from this initiative. We do have an abundance of water, land is there, and the people are just waiting to be served by this water resource."

Emrico Blaauw is the mayor of Keetmanshoop, who added, "As leaders we have responsibility, not merely to identify opportunities, but to unlock them. We must move from discussions to actions, from possibilities to implement, from plans to projects that create real benefits for our people."