Tunisia's Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Mohamed Habib, opened the First African Water Week on Wednesday, March 26, 2008, in Tunis, Tunisia. The opening plenary with several ministers of water from Africa in attendance, was also addressed by invited eminent persons, among them HRH Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange (Netherlands), Loic Fauchon, President of the World Water Council, and Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank Group.

This was followed by a morning and early afternoon plenary to consider the issue of 'Infrastructure Platform for Achieving Water Security'. The morning session, co-Chaired by Gilbert Mbesherubusa, AfDB, and Asfaw Dingamo, Minister for Water Resources Ethiopia, focused on lessons learned at the global level, while the afternoon session, co-Chaired by David Grey, World Bank, and Maria Mutagambe, Minister for Water and Environment, Uganda, focused on regional experiences. The late afternoon plenary, co-Chaired by Halifa Drammeh, UNEP, and Sellal Abdelmalek, Minister of Water Resources, Algeria, considered Africa's progress in meeting the water and sanitation related Millennium Development Goals.