In the mid-17th century, Jerzy Ossoliński, Crown Court Treasurer of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was the first to suggest the idea of upgrading the portage to a canal with locks.

Originally it was named Kanał Królewski (English: Royal Canal), after the Polish king, since he was the initiator of the project.

As a result, the canal became navigable for bigger vessels, in particular steamers, at any time from spring till autumn.

Navigation on the Dnieper–Bug Canal is interrupted by weirs on the rivers Mukhavets and Bug near Brest, Belarus, the border town.

That is the only place that, for the time being, makes the navigation from Western Europe to Belarus and Ukraine through inland waterways impossible.

Recently the dam in the Bug, making it impossible for ships to pass, has led to considerable neglect of the most western part of the Mukhavets; some of the locks have been filled in and Brest Harbor can only be reached by vessels approaching from the east.

[3] More recently efforts have been undertaken to restore the canal to a class IV inland waterway of international importance.