Residents of the ||Kharas Region have called for preferential employment opportunities at the National Neckartal Irrigation Project.

They made the call during a recent community engagement with government-appointed project consultants, Dunamis Consulting Engineers, in Keetmanshoop.

Consultants held a meeting to solicit community input on the irrigation project, which is currently undergoing a viability assessment.

Participants questioned whether unemployed residents in the region would receive preferential consideration for employment and benefit from the project's social responsibility programmes.

Randolph Mouton, the Managing Director of Sustainable Development Africa (SusDaf), reassured participants that he would consider their concerns about employment opportunities.

"We will sit down with the government and the Ministry of Labour to discuss this matter and see how we can address it while ensuring that local people benefit from the project before they are brought in from the outside. However, we must also keep in mind that although the project is located in your region, it is still a national project and everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from it."

The project's viability assessment will be conducted in five phases and is expected to be completed before the end of the year.