The first part of the canal, Bardenas I, from Yesa to the Arba de Luesia river, is 72 km long.

In this part the canal is derived in the following irrigation ditches: Once the Arba de Luesia river is crossed, the second section, Bardenas II, begins.

[3] The development of the irrigable areas of Bardenas I was carried out by means of coordination plans made by the National Institute of Colonization, which was in charge of the construction of the secondary networks, complementary works, land leveling, reforestation, construction of new villages and settlement of farmers in the new irrigated areas.

[3] The irrigated production to which the waters of the Bardenas canal are dedicated is mainly made up of extensive herbaceous crops such as corn, wheat, barley, etc.

In 1702 the engineer Josef Estorguia and the arm of the hijosdalgo knights launched the proposal to divert the river so that it would run through Aragonese lands, thus avoiding the payment of tariffs and tolls to the Navarrese.

54 years later, in 1756, a project was drawn up for the construction of a canal that, originating in Tiermas, was to irrigate the Aragonese region of Cinco Villas.

In 1923 a new project was commissioned, drawn up by the engineers Felix de los Ríos, Mariano Vicente and Antonio Colom, who carried out the study on the basis of an irrigable surface area of 130,000 ha, to contribute 400,000 million cubic meters per year to the Ardisa dam and to supply drinking water to Saragossa.

This proposal was included in the linking of the three large rivers on the left side of the Ebro, the Aragon, the Gallego and the Cinca.

In 1926 it was estimated that Yesa Reservoir would only be used for the irrigation of the Bardenas and the Cinco Villas region, and its possible contribution to the Imperial Canal of Aragón was rejected.

On 13 November 1928 the foundation works for the dam, which had been put out to tender in the III Plan de Obras y Trabajos, began.

In this same Plan de Obras y Trabajos it was decided to lower the route of the Bardenas canal, especially once in the Riguel river basin.

After the Civil War, in which the works were stopped, they were resumed with the construction of the variant of the race in 1940 and the excavation of the right slope.

In 1945, by the hand of Rene Petit, two renovations of the project were carried out, the first one was approved by Ministerial Order on February 6 and the second and definitive one on September 15.

The uses to be given to the Yesa water were definitively designated, which were the same as those foreseen in the Félix de los Ríos project, but the irrigable surface area was reduced to 110,000 ha.

On October 19, 1951, the transformation into irrigation of the area of the first part of the canal which reaches the river Arba de Luesia was declared by Royal Decree to be of high national interest.