While there was initially general enthusiasm for the project, further surveys discovered that one of the chotts that Roudaire and de Lesseps proposed to dig a canal to was, in fact, above sea level.
While there was initially general enthusiasm for the project, the government canceled the project in 1882. Criticism of the project form within the scientific community mounted, however, when it was discovered that the Chott Roudaire and de Lesseps proposed to dig a canal to was, in fact, above sea level.