botswana/namibia - Cour international de Justice

(ii) The misrepresentation that the 'Alexandrine' channel is the sole channel to carry
substantial flow, and that such flow comes from the floodwaters of the Zambezi
288. The 'Alexandrine channel' is an invention of Professor Alexander and set out in his
Report:-
"Photographs 3, 4 and 5 show that the left bank of the southern channel along this reach of the
southern channel is only a few centimetres above the stagnant water level in the channel. The
shape and characteristics of the bank show that flow takes place across the island (italics
added) and into the southern channel along this reach of the channel." (Namibian Memorial,
Vol.VI, Part 1, Expert Report, p.24,para.9.4).
289. When the Zambezi is in flood, flow is:-
"along a broad band on the Island (Zone d in Diagram 4,Sheet 17) that has a lighter and
smoother surface on the aerial photographs. The southern channel is located within this band
that identifies the southern channel as being the path along which the bulk of the water in the
Chobe River is conveyed". (Namibian Memorial, Vol.VI, Part 1, Expert Report, p.35, para.
12.7).
290. This is a gross misrepresentation of the topography and hydrology. It totally contradicts
the observable facts on the ground. Photograph 2, Sheet 20 and Photo 4, Sheet 21 of the
Expert Report, (Namibian Memorial, Vol.VI Part 2) show the extent of the island covered by
this broad band. No left bank is visible but a line drawn in a north-easterly direction across the
Island is labelled in Photo 2, in what seems a total disregard of the discernible facts, as the
"centre of the main channel". In fact the line across the island to which Professor Alexander
refers, far from being a bank of a river, is an extension of the inlet at the eastern end of the
southern channel, and is a low lying sub-channel, dividing the western higher part of the
island from the lower eastern sector. Reference to the August 1947 aerial photograph reveals a
string of pools/damp areas in the mid-section of this sub-channel. The presence of pools of
water in the low-lying parts of the island is confirmed by the Landsat (Satellite) imagery of
June 1975, particularly the false colour composite in Figure 14 (Professor Sefe's Second
Opinion, page 56, para. 75).
291. Contrary, therefore to his general requirement of visible banks, the left bank of this
'southern channel' has no visible bank. In his Report Professor Alexander attempts somewhat
mystifyingly to explain this absence:-
"..the course of the Chobe River can be readily and unambiguously determined along the
whole length of the river from Point (8) on Map 2 on Sheet 29 right through to the confluence
of the Chobe River and the Zambezi River at Point (12) on the map. Along those reaches of
the Chobe River where the left bank of the river is not visible, the left edge of the main
channel has to be determined by other means bearing in mind that it is the edge of the zone
along which the largest proportion of the annual flow in the river is conveyed." (Namibian
Memorial, Vol.VI, Part 1, Expert Report, p.19. para.7.14.)
This is an example of his introduction of deliberate confusion as to the significance of banks.
292. A further point to note is that, on Alexander's thesis, even assuming the major source of
flow is floodwater, the closer location of the northern channel to the Zambezi and its flood