However, not every place in this world is hiding its sewage. According to Reuters, an Australian ski resort has just completed trials to see whether it can turn treated wastewater into man-made snow, and now claims that the final product is so clean you could drink it.

In the southern state of Victoria, the Mount Buller Resort came across the idea when environmental authorities asked the resort whether it could dispose of its treated waste on site, says David Westphalen of the resort's management board. Always eager for some extra snow, resort managers decided to see whether the waste could be sufficiently disinfected and filtered to be put through snowmaking machines on the ski slopes.

"We can have 20,000-odd people in the village on any one day during the snow season, and obviously they do the human thing and we end up with sewage," Westphalen told Reuters.

After subjecting the waste to three separate processes, including ultrafiltration through a membrane capable of removing bacteria and viruses, the resort found it could produce recycled water that was "absolutely crystal clear," he said.

"It's actually better quality than what we pull out of the creek."

The final consumer test will be scheduled in the future, and the resort hopes skiers won't pooh-pooh the scheme.