There's another side benefit to desalination that nobody seems to have mentioned here yet, which is solar ponds, as you can use the resultant "waste" brine to make the required halocline. Solar ponds are a means of generating usable energy from the storage of solar energy within a body of brine. Israel actually made headway with this tech in the 80's, but shelved it as there was no real urgent need for it - but there's new interest in it as a renewable energy source.

Anyway, wikipedia gives a bit more background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_pond