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municipal water

Arabic translation: مياه الشرب

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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	municipal water
Arabic translation:	مياه الشرب
Entered by:	Rania K

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13:01 Mar 8, 2005

English to Arabic translations [PRO]
Science - Environment & Ecology

English term or phrase: municipal water

It is among the activity of a company specialized in water treatment.

nizar kallal KudoZ activity Questions: 82 (4 open) (4 closed without grading) Answers: 41
Local time: 05:19

مياه الشرب

Explanation:
That is, if I'm right guessing that municipal water refers to drinking water (as opposed to the wastewater,which is مياه المجاري or مياه الصرف الصحي).

Selected response from:

Rania K
Local time: 23:19

Grading comment

Graded automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +4

مياه الشرب

Rania K

5 +2

These two words are not a unit

Fuad Yahya

4 +2

شبكة مياه الشفه

J. Akl

منزلية / ذو مصدر منزلي

Maria Kotob

4 +1

مياه البلدية

ahmadwadan.com

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

23 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

شبكة مياه الشفه

Explanation:
as opposed to wastewater : المجاري

J. Akl
Local time: 07:19
Native speaker of:

Arabic

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

مياه الشرب

Explanation:
That is, if I'm right guessing that municipal water refers to drinking water (as opposed to the wastewater,which is مياه المجاري or مياه الصرف الصحي).

Rania K
Local time: 23:19
Native speaker of:

Arabic
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

Graded automatically based on peer agreement.

5 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

These two words are not a unit

Explanation:
The adjective "municipal" does not apply to "water" per se. It applies to both "water" and "wastewater." In other words, the conjuction "and" does not conjoin "municipal water" and "wastewater," but rather "water" and "wastewater," with the adjective "municipal" applying to both.

So "water," in this case refers to ordinary water, which explains why it does not need any modifier. It becomes "drinking water" or "potable water" only after treatment.

So, if you want to be faithful to the original construction, the phrase "water and municipal water" is to be translated:

الماء وماء الصرف
أو المياه ومياه الصرف

If you find the construction awkward, you can (preferably with client consent) construct it as

مياه الشرب والصرف

In this construction, مياه الشرب means water intended for drinking (after treatment).

So what about "municipal"?

The truth is that "municipal" here should not be translated literally as

البلدية

The reason is that this would be very confusing to the intended audience, because water treatment authorities are not always part of the municipal government. In many places, water is too precious to be left to the discretion of the locals, so it is run by a national-level authority, even a cabinet levl ministry in some countries.

Therefore, it should be translated as

عمومية

So the whole phrase, now that we have parsed it to smithereens, becomes

المياه ومياه الصرف العمومية
أو مياه الشرب والصرف العمومية

Fuad Yahya
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Arabic,

English
PRO pts in category: 28

35 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

مياه البلدية

Explanation:
Dear prozers, kindly try to change encoding to Arabic (iso) or Arabic (windows)in case you can not see Arabic.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 days 9 hrs 37 mins (2005-03-10 22:39:35 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Fuad is right and I am wrong (These two words are not a unit), the English term misguided me because there was no context when I answered.

ahmadwadan.com
Kuwait
Local time: 07:19
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Arabic

447 days confidence:

منزلية / ذو مصدر منزلي

Explanation:
Dear All,

I currently work in the field of environment, and more particularly in wastewater.

I can tell you with confidence that the term municipal here refers strictly to the SOURCE (and use) of the water, that is as opposed to industrial wastewater, stormwater (rain + debris etc..), or agricultural wastewater (runoff, pesticides, etc..).

However in Arabic the word "municipal" in this sentence can be expressed differently for 'water' and 'wastewater' as follows:

municipal water = مياه الشفة / الشرب
municipal wastewater = المياه المبتذلة المنزلية / مياه الصرف الصحي المنزلي

The first refers to drinking water, while the second to wastewater of municipal source (refered to as domestic source - interchangeably).

The word عمومية indicates public ownership and is inapplicable.
The word بلدية is a direct translation and can not be really used in this context.

So Foud's reasoning is perfectly correct.

Maria Kotob
Local time: 07:19
Native speaker of:

Arabic,

English

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Arabic translation: مياه الشرب

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