The government of Colombia has a constitutional duty to protect high elevation wetlands that are an important source of fresh water to communities and provide other valuable environmental services.

The government of India has a constitutional duty to protect communal water bodies, and the people of India have a right to a healthy environment which encompasses access to water; therefore, the government may not allocate these vital resources to private third-parties for development. Construction of artificial, replacement water bodies will not suffice because the environment cannot be resuscitated by “merely filling a hole with water elsewhere.”