Back Brunnenvergiftung ALS Brunnenvergiftung German Envenenamiento de pozos Spanish سمی کردن چاه Persian Accusation d'empoisonnement des puits contre les Juifs French הרעלת בארות HE Lenda do envenenamento dos poços Portuguese
Well poisoning is the act of malicious manipulation of potable water resources in order to cause illness or death, or to deny an opponent access to fresh water resources.
Well poisoning has been historically documented as a strategy during wartime since antiquity, and was used both offensively (as a terror tactic to disrupt and depopulate a target area) and defensively (as a scorched earth tactic to deny an invading army sources of clean water). Rotting corpses (both animal and human) thrown down wells were the most common implementation; in one of the earliest examples of biological warfare, corpses known to have died from common transmissible diseases of the Pre-Modern era such as bubonic plague or tuberculosis were especially favored for well-poisoning.