Located at Duisburg-Meiderich, Oberhausen, Gelsenkirchen, Wanne-Eickel and East Herne, they pump water from the Rhine into the canal at each stage.

In 1980 the current sluicegate was completed, including a 24-metre-high (79 ft) under-gate and control platform, which has now become a visible yellow landmark in the Ruhr landscape.

The intended harbour of the old lock is today underwater and part of the foundations of the canal walls.

This harbour was meant to be a possible spot for the eventual significant reconstruction of the lock, but it was never used for this purpose.

The canal begins in Duisburg along with the Schifffahrtskanal; connected to land by three bays of the Kanalhafen, and to the rest of the world via the Rhine.

The Oberhausen marina is a yacht port opened in 2004 in close proximity to the CentrO shopping centre.

The port consists of a doubled sided canal side quay together with a harbour port at right angles onto the canal, which together form a water area of 63,000 square metres (680,000 sq ft) with associated dock-land of 300,000 square metres (3,200,000 sq ft) The dock handles bulk goods such as solid mineral fuels, petroleum and chemical products, stone, earth and iron and steel as well as recyclable materials, and is an important transhipment point.

The port has two docks branched from the canal situated just east of the lock at Gelsenkirchen and has a water surface of 117,800 square metres (1,268,000 sq ft).

Built in 1914 by the Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks AG (GBAG) to provide a link to the GBAG mines of Rheinelbe, Alma and Pluto as well as supplying the ironworks of 'Schalker group' with imported ore. Around the same time, and up to 1929 the industrial railway of Erzbahn was built, serving the Schalker and Bochum group iron and steelworks.

[5] Such was the emphasis on iron ore that much of the port now stands empty, part of it nowadays is used for the processing of recycled materials for the building industry, as well as a storage facility.

The docks of the port at Wanner West were filled in to make room for the Güterverkehrszentrum Emscher - a logistics (road, rail and river) centre working in association with other companies.

The Wanne-Herner Eisenbahn und Hafen GmbH (WHE) operates both the remaining canal side docks and the associated railway.

It is located at kilometer 38 of the canal, just upstream of the Herne Ost lock, on the north bank opposite the Hafen der Zeche Friedrich der Große (Frederick the Great mine port).