History Main / WaterSourceTampering

* In ''{{Birdy the Mighty}}'', this was Seichiro Hikawa's plan for the people of Tokyo, to turn them into "retro soldiers" by tainting the city's water supply with serum [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxFqMG_OSNs starting at 4:27]].

* ''{{Paranoia}}'' supplement ''Acute Paranoia'', adventure "Outland-ISH". The high Programmer of ISH sector is putting a drug called ZAP! in the water supply for Infrared citizens. It tremendously increases productivity but eventually kills the drinker.

* Poisoning a city's water supply was a potential espionage action in ''{{Civilization}} II''. Succeeding reduced the city's population.

As such, [[SuperVillain super-villains]] or [[GovernmentConspiracy government conspiracies]] putting horrible stuff in the water has been the fodder of fictional plots for years. In other settings, [[WindmillPolitical the paranoia is not justified but might still be relevant to the plot]].

* ''{{Signs}}'': Bo, the little girl, would start glasses of water then find something wrong with them (such as "It has [her brother's] amoebas in it!") and stop drinking them, leaving them scattered all over the house, half-full. [[spoiler: It turned out leaving the glasses all over was Bo being precognitive but unwilling or unable to explain it. Water was harmful to the hostile aliens, one of which had gotten into the house, and when they needed to be able to hurt it, it found itself standing in a room surrounded by partially full water glasses]].

* In ''PowerRangersZeo'', the MachineEmpire tried to contaminate all the Earth's water in order to kill off humanity while at the same time turning it into something they could swim in.

* ''DragonQuestVII'' has Krage, whose sole source of water is a single well in the middle of town. Then it gets spiked with a poison that [[BrainwashedAndCrazy makes everyone believe that they're]] [[BigBad the Demon Lord]]. Considerable amounts of StupidEvil antics ensue until your merry band is able to do anything about it.

* ''The Beast of War''. [[SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan the Soviet tank crew]] is shown emptying poison canisters into a well while attacking a village. Later on one of the mujahadeen is killed when he drinks from a poisoned well.

* In ''{{Discworld}}'', there was a man who had poisoned the only well for twenty miles worth of desert, killing five men, seven women, thirteen children, and thirty-one camels (some of them being very valuable camels). [[spoiler:This is the source of 71-Hour Ahmed's name. Once he had solid evidence and witness testimony, he executed the poisoner before the customary three days of SacredHospitality was up]].

* Often used as a plot point in the adventures of [[{{Blueberry}} Lieutenant Blueberry]]: one or more characters finally come upon a water source after a long and hellish trip through the desert... only to find out that the bad guys (or at any rate, someone who does not want to see them come out of the desert alive) have poisoned it by throwing in a dead animal, usually a horse.

* Often used as a plot point in the adventures of [[{{Blueberry}} Lieutenant Blueberry]]: one or more of the main characters finally come upon a water source after a long and hellish trip through the desert... only to find out that the bad guys (or at any rate, someone who does not want to see them come out of the desert alive) have poisoned it by throwing in a dead animal, usually a horse.

* ''DragonQuestVII'' has Krage, whose sole source of water is a single well in the middle of town. Then it gets spiked with a poison that [[BrainwashedAndCrazy everyone believe that they're]] [[BigBad the Demon Lord]]. Considerable amounts of StupidEvil antics ensue until your merry band is able to do anything about it.

** ''SupremePower'' (an AlternateCompanyEquivalent to the DCU and especially the Justice League) was all too happy to show how terrifying this would be in the spinoff where Nighthawk (the {{Batman}} analogue) deals with an OmnicidalManiac who has developed a UniversalPoison and is trying to kill off an entire major city with it.

Fear of drinking water is a classic paranoia. In some settings, [[SuperVillain super-villains]] or [[GovernmentConspiracy government conspiracies]] are ''actually'' putting horrible stuff in the water. In other settings, [[WindmillPolitical the paranoia is not justified but might still be relevant to the plot]].

* At various points in history, people have proposed introducing sterilizers into the drinking water to alleviate population pressures. Thankfully, saner heads prevail.

* In ''TheTuxedo'', Dietrich Banning (Ritchie Coster) is the owner of a bottled water company. By infecting a swarm of water strider insects with a strain of bacteria that causes water to dehydrate rather than rehydrate the drinker and letting them loose, he plans to render all the water in the world undrinkable except his own, thus increasing its value.

* Early on in ''FinalFantasyVI'', Kefka does this to the village of Doma in one of the definitive crossings of the MoralEventHorizon in console gaming.
* A man in the first level of ''HalfLife 2'' tells you not to drink the bottled water in City 17 because "they put something in it to make you forget".
* [[TheMessiah Micaiah]] of ''FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' rejects this as a tactic to take out a well defended enemy base when it's suggested. Rather than point out the questionable ethics involved, she explains that people would ''see'' it as a questionable act, and start to question their motives, maybe turn against them.

* In TheSimpsons, Homer says that Shelbyville vowed to spike Springfield's water supply in revenge for Springfield burning down their city hall, but "they don't have the guts". Three guesses what happens to Marge [[MushroomSamba next.]]

* In Medieval Europe, one of the motivations for anti-Semitic violence was that Jews were accused of poisoning the wells used by Christians (This is the ultimate origin of the name of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_the_well that logical fallacy]])

* In ''TheXFiles'' episode "Anasazi", TheSyndicate puts LSD into Mulder's water supply, causing erratic behavior that discredits both him and the case he is currently following.

* Subverted by Alastor Moody in his first appearance in ''HarryPotter'': the known paranoid drinks only from his canteen, but [[spoiler:this conveniently allows to impersonate him by taking regular sips of Polyjuice Potion]].