botswana/namibia - Cour international de Justice
botswana/namibia - Cour international de Justice
botswana/namibia - Cour international de Justice
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
[8. List of Air-Photographs reviewed: 1. Photo 'A' 1925; 2. Photo 'B' 1943; 3. Photo 'C' 1947; 4. Photo 'D' 1962;<br />
5. Photo 'E' May 1972; 6. Photo 'F' Nov 1972; 7. Photo 'G' 1981; 8. Photo 'H' Aug 1985; 9. Photo 'J' July 1977;<br />
10. Photo 'K' June 1997; 11. Photo 'L' June 1997 Montage of 8 photos from Mambova to Sedudu.]<br />
(ii) Certain common features are observable in all the aerial photographs:-<br />
I. There has been no change over seventy years<br />
391. Comparison of each of the photographic images over this period reveals that there is<br />
virtually no discernible change in the size or shape of the Island and its surroundings. This<br />
striking absence of change was noted in the Joint Survey Report of 1985 which stated :-<br />
"Air photographs showing the channels of the river in the vicinity of the island are available<br />
in the archives of the two national survey organisations. They were taken in 1925, 1943, 1962,<br />
1972, 1981, and 1982. No substantial change in the position of the channels is evi<strong>de</strong>nt from<br />
the photographs." (Botswana Memorial, Annex 48.)<br />
Shoreline and visible surface features are practically i<strong>de</strong>ntical on all photographs in the series,<br />
as illustrated by the small stand of well established hardwood trees clearly visible on the<br />
northern spit of the island on the 1925 mosaic, Photograph A, marked big trees, which are<br />
also clearly visible on the 1985 photograph, Photograph arrow. (Attachment to the Counter-<br />
Memorial). This uniformity throughout the series of air photography indicates the inherent<br />
stability of the riverine system in the locality of Kasikili/Sedudu Island.<br />
II. Similarly there are no signs of erosion<br />
392. The size and shape of the southern channel and the features lying within it have remained<br />
unaltered, indicating that very little current passes through this channel. The photograph taken<br />
in September 1997 (at page 157) shows submerged trees in the southern channel lining its<br />
stable non-erodible banks. If the southern channel was the main channel and carried the<br />
greater volume of water and current, it would be expected that the western si<strong>de</strong> of the<br />
sediment spit (marked A) would have ero<strong>de</strong>d to some extent as the current swept along the<br />
western bank. The unchanged shape of the sediment spit indicates the absence of any such<br />
current and of any erosion.<br />
393. Similarly the size and shape of the sediment fans at the exit of the Sedudu Valley in the<br />
bifurcation zone remain unchanged from the earliest 1925 photograph. Storms or floods in the<br />
subsequent years have, therefore, had no effect whatsoever on the silt <strong>de</strong>posits in the southern<br />
channel.<br />
G24 - Photograph of Kasikili/Sedudu Island and sunken trees<br />
G25 - September 1997 photograph of sand banks in western entry to southern channel<br />
III. The configuration of the Island remains the same throughout the period<br />
394. No support is provi<strong>de</strong>d for the flood zone referred to in the Expert Report in the<br />
Namibian Memorial. The surface texture of the island is uniform across the island. A line is<br />
visible on the photographs running from the inlet on the western si<strong>de</strong> of the southern channel<br />
diagonally across the island south west to the western channel. This line is not the boundary<br />
line of zone d which Professor Alexan<strong>de</strong>r proposes in Diagram 4 of Sheet 17 (Namibian