MacDonald worked on the initial siting and design of Gebel Aulia Dam, which was built upstream in the Sudan, but also provided 4 billion cubic metres of regulated storage annually for irrigation downstream in Egypt. He designed and constructed the head works of the Menufia Canal, downstream of the Delta Barrage, the Esna Barrage downstream of Aswan, and effected large-scale improvements to Alexandria Harbour. But even in the 1910s, the propagation of many of these schemes for the development of Egypt aroused much controversy. One expert commission after another was set up to examine the projects and investigate the criticisms of them, and it was in this connection that MacDonald prepared a detailed report entitled "Nile Control", which is looked upon as an early valuable guide to the effective water resource management of the Nile.