a canal that links the Pina River (a tributary of the Pripiat’; Dnieper River basin) with the Mukhavets River (a tributary of the Bug; Visla River basin). It measures 196 km long (canalized part of the Pina River, 74 km; interfluvial part of the canal, 58 km; canalized part of the Mukhavets River, 64 km).
Construction of the Dnieper-Bug Canal began in 1775 but was soon abandoned. It was resumed in 1837, and most of the construction was done from 1846 to 1848. With the seizure of Western Byelorussia in 1919 by gentry Poland, the canal was destroyed. After the reunification of Western Byelorussia with the Byelorussian SSR, it was restored and put into operation. During the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), the canal’s hydraulic structures were destroyed; the canal was restored and reconstructed in 1945-46. The Dnieper-Bug Canal is a dead-end canal and has no outlet to the Bug River (there is a nonoverflow dam at the mouth of the Mukhavets for the backwater); vessels travel as far as the city of Brest. The cargo transported is mostly iron ore (for export, reloaded at Brest onto freight trains), timber, and mineral building materials.