History Main / WaterSourceTampering

* In ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'', one of Woody's quotes that play when someone pulls his string is "Somebody's poisoned the waterhole!"

* In some versions of [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian Legend]], this is why King Uther dies-his enemies poison the castle’s well.

* An inverted version is mentioned in ''Film/{{Contagion}}''. The US government wants to know if they can distribute the cure this way, but is told that it would only [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome dilute it beyond practical effectiveness]].

** Although you'd figure that people would just boil the water, which is a very common method of purification that is extremely reliable.

* ''VideoGame/Uncharted3'': The secret of King Solomon's ifrit is eventually revealed to be a [[spoiler: potent hallucinogen, hidden in the brass bottle, which he secretly introduced into the water supply of Ubar. After having primed the citizens of Ubar to believe he was going to unleash an ifrit upon them, and seeing as the city is in the middle of the desert and nobody had any choice but to drink the tainted water, they all had a catastrophic mass hallucination and set the city on fire themselves.]]

* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=528 also has fun with this]].

%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
%%
%%

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: A possible future shows the hero doing this when the inmates of a fortified prison manage to take the president hostage. As everyone in this future has taken/is on the [[FountainOfYouth age regressing immortality drug L-3]] she dumps an anti-L-3 agent into the water supply for the prison, causing all of the troublemaker to rapidly age up physically to their actual geriatric ages.

* In ''FanFic/ACureForLove'' [[spoiler: [[AGodAmI Kira]]]]'s ultimate scheme is to release a SterilityPlague into the water supply so that he may gain absolute control over the human race.

* ''Series/GetSmart''. In "Is This Trip Necessary?", a [[MadDoctor Mad Phamacist]] plans to put an enormous hallucinogen pill in the water supply, but is stopped by our heroes. When Max and 99 realise that, as a result, everyone will have a normal boring day tomorrow, they wonder if they did the right thing.

* Mentioned in' 'Literature/ADanceWithDragons'', the fifth book of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Tyrion opines that Daenerys Targaryen is a fool for not poisoning every well within a 20 mile radius of her city of Meereen the moment she learned an enemy army was coming to lay siege. Tyrion notes that if she'd done so, the enemy's only water supply would have been a noxious nearby river that drinking from would have invited an outbreak of all manner of waterborne diseases within the ranks.

* One episode of ''Radio/TheShadow'' had an unseen villain killing people by poison and falsely claiming to be The Shadow. It is quickly figured out that the murderer is killing by putting poison into buildings water supplies. The real Shadow tracks the villain down and prevents him from dumping the poison into a water tower.

** In his first appearance, PoisonousPerson Dr. Phosphorus attempted tp poison Gotham's water supply by submerging his toxic body in the city's reservoir.

* InvokedTrope in ''Anime/CowboyBebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door''. Vincent Volaju leaves a fake bomb in the water treatment plant to distract the authorities while actually planning to disperse the virus by other means.

One episode of ''Radio/TheShadow'' had an unseen villain killing people by poison and falsely claiming to be The Shadow. It is quickly figured out that the murderer is killing by putting poison into buildings water supplies. The real Shadow tracks the villain down and prevents him from dumping the poison into a water tower.

%%
%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
%%
%%
%%
%%
%%
%%

--> '''Construction Worker:''' That nutjob Sweet Tooth is gonna poison the water supply!\\

* One Soviet mission in the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert: Aftermath'' expansion pack is called "Don't Drink the Water" and involves using a supply truck to poison a river, which kills all Allied soldiers in a nearby outpost and allows you to capture a Chronosphere.

* In ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', 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.]]

Compare TamperingWithFoodAndDrink, which is at least normally intended as a (deadly) prank. Can be a PoisonAndCureGambit. See also CoolClearWater for when a body of water is assumed to be clean based on how it looks even though it would be more realistic for it to be just as tainted and unsafe to drink as this trope.