[3] The canal starts close to the Scheldt river, at the port of Antwerp, and generally runs north.

Just north of Zuid-Beveland ships have to pass the Kreekrak sluices [nl] to enter the lower part of the canal.

Just north of the sluices the canal enters the artificial Zoommeer [nl] and leaves this lake again as a canalised section of the former Eendracht strait, before terminating in the Volkerak estuary.

During the 1920s the Belgian government demanded a replacement for the Canal through Zuid-Beveland, to keep the port of Antwerp accessible for the lucrative Rhine trade.

According to the original plan, the new canal was supposed to connect Antwerp directly to Moerdijk on the Hollands Diep, but after the Second World War and the North Sea flood of 1953 the Dutch government decided that the new canal should be part of the Delta Works and proposed a more westerly route, in fact it would take the same route as the ancient Striene river.