Try per unit of water, so you can make meaningful comparisons. Desalinated water apparently costs/is priced at USD $2-3/meter^3 in the UAE [1,2] (0.2-0.3 cents/liter), so 1,000 liters/day => $2-3/day or ~$1,000/year.
A large UAE desalination plant for comparison [3]: natural-gas fired CCGT piped to an offshore gas field, 1,430 MW electricity, and 380 million liters desalinated water/day (~$1 million/day or ~$300 million/year), presumably from waste heat.
Average per-capita water consumption in the UAE is 550 liters/day [4] (so ~$400-$600/year?) -- actually among the highest in the world, comparable to the US. The point probably being that their GDP/per capita is also comparable to the US, so the desalination cost isn't that big of a disincentive.
As you notice, the UAE is rather wealthy. I seriously doubt they located the prototype near Abu Dhabi because it was a location in dire need of safe water, rather than convenience and publicity.
A few other middle eastern, and numerous African countries, with GDPs so small you'll think there was a typo, both desert and not, have serious clean water shortages.
A large UAE desalination plant for comparison [3]: natural-gas fired CCGT piped to an offshore gas field, 1,430 MW electricity, and 380 million liters desalinated water/day (~$1 million/day or ~$300 million/year), presumably from waste heat.
Average per-capita water consumption in the UAE is 550 liters/day [4] (so ~$400-$600/year?) -- actually among the highest in the world, comparable to the US. The point probably being that their GDP/per capita is also comparable to the US, so the desalination cost isn't that big of a disincentive.
[1] http://www.zawya.com/story/ZAWYA20100808044642/UAE%20Spends%...
[2] http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/dubai-introduces-n...
[3] http://www.power-technology.com/projects/taweelah/
[4] http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/thousands-of-abu-dha...