botswana/namibia - Cour international de Justice

partisan approach is characterised by glaring errors, omissions, and misrepresentations, and a
summary of these are to be found in Professor Sefe's Second Opinion (Appendix 2) and his
more detailed analysis of Alexander's Report (Appendix 4 to this Counter-Memorial).
(E) The three fundamental misconceptions in the Namibian case relating to the scientific
evidence
261. The extreme thesis which the Namibian Memorial advances in support of the southern
channel as the main channel is built upon three fundamental misconceptions:-
(i) The misconception that the Chobe is not a River
262. The Namibian Memorial invites the Court " to shed any preconception which it may
have about rivers in general" and postulates
"The Chobe is a river of an entirely different kind...It is not a single continuous watercourse
steadily carrying water in a downstream direction from its own watershed to its mouth or to
its junction with another river. It is, instead, part of a complex river system closely associated
with the Zambezi River lying to its north. The Chobe is not a perennial river, but an
ephemeral one." (Namibian Memorial, p.119.para.56.)
263. This is an extraordinary distortion of the geography of the region. The Glossary of
Hydrology produced by the American Geological Institute defines a river as "a general term
for a natural freshwater surface stream of considerable volume and a permanent or seasonal
flow moving in a definite channel towards a sea, lake or another river." The Chobe River
conforms to this definition as discussed in the Second Opinion of Professor Sefe (as he now
is), which is set out in Appendix 2 to this Counter-Memorial, at p.3, para. 7. It has a defined
catchment area extending into the Angolan Highlands. The Chobe River is an independent
perennial river with continuous flow at all seasons of the year through the northern channel
around Kasikili/Sedudu Island, that channel having stable and visible banks, as illustrated by
the aerial photographs and satellite imageries and as more specifically set out in Chapter 6,
paras. 390 to 456.
264. The Chobe River may properly be classified as a tributary of the Zambezi River but this
association between the two rivers does not negate the existence of the Chobe River as a
separate geomorphological and hydrological entity: see Map C (opposite paragraph 195). To
maintain otherwise is to run counter to the opinion of Namibia's own expert, Professor
Alexander, who speaks of the Cuando(Chobe) as "one of the three major rivers in southcentral
Africa", which "..originate in the high rainfall regions of sub-equatorial Africa and
then follow parallel paths in a south-easterly direction across featureless terrain until their
courses are obstructed by a series of low ridges across their paths." (Namibian Memorial,
Vol.VI, Part 1, Expert Report, p.11, para. 5.2.)
265. All accounts of European explorers on whose knowledge and maps the treaty-makers
relied in 1890 clearly identify the Chobe as an independent perennial river (as more
particularly set out in Chapter 6 of this Counter-Memorial, paras. 358 to 362).
(ii) The misconception that the Chobe River is part of the flood plain of the Zambezi
River