The organization's headquarters are in Zaragoza and it was the first institution created in the world with the objective of managing an entire river basin in a unitary manner.

In 1913, the First National Irrigation Congress was held in Zaragoza, exposing the idea of setting up a community group of an economic and supra-regional nature through the federation of the agricultural, commercial and industrial associations of the whole area subject to the influence of the Ebro.

Article 1 of the founding Royal Decree states that:In all the hydrographic basins in which the Administration declares it convenient or in which at least 70% of its agricultural and industrial wealth, affected by the use of its flowing waters, requests it, the Confederación Sindical Hidrográfica will be formed.The Confederación Sindical Hidrográfica del Ebro was the first to be set up, by Royal Decree of March 5, 1926, and its first Technical Director was the engineer Manuel Lorenzo Pardo, a follower of the ideas of Joaquín Costa,[2] the great instigator of its founding.

These functions are the following: The Ebro Confederation is also responsible for economic and ecological problems, such as zebra mussels and other introduced animal and plant species, and for providing users with information on the measures that can be taken in the use of boats, contained in the navigation regulations.

The Ebro river basin is located in the NE quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula and covers a total surface area of 85,362 km2, of which 445 km2 are in Andorra, 502 km2 in France and the rest in Spain.

It is drained by the Ebro river which, with a total length of 910 km, runs NW-SE, from the Cantabrian Mountains to the Mediterranean, where it flows into a magnificent delta.

The most famous lakes and lagoons are mainly in the mountainous areas, the so-called ibones or estanys of the Pyrenees, small in size but of great beauty.

Estimated surface water supply to the natural regime from 1940/41 to 1985/86: This large and varied territory is home to some 3 019 176 inhabitants, which represents a population density of 33 inhabitants/km2, well below the Spanish average (78 inhabitants/km2).

The endorheic lagoons that still persist are the remains of the Cenozoic seas or Pliocene residual lakes and usually have a very characteristic and rare endemic fauna and flora with some large species such as the crane, flamingo, or the alcaraván.

From October 1926 Regino Borobio Ojeda was the consulting architect of the CHE for which he carried out in the Ebro basin projects of agricultural farms, garages, schools, housing and offices in reservoirs.