Speaking of eastern europe, here is some anecdata. There are villages and towns in Romania that received EU funding for water and waste treatment. Naturally money have been embezzled and instead what they got was “drinking” water with traces of fecal matter (bacteria and the resulting chemicals). When confronted about it, the locals (not even those responsible for the issue), said that the water tastes real good and are “proud” of what their mayors did to the water system. They even said its healthier than city water because it’s “eco” and has less chemicals. No less than 892 communes benefit from the blessing of “real good” water (a commune usually covers a few villages, so you can imagine the scale of the issue). And yes, they voted the same people back in and are staunch defenders of their “performance”.

Source (in Romanian, published by an investigative reporter): https://recorder.ro/harta-apei-contaminate-din-satele-romani...