Yep, and that's what I basically meant by 'hooking it up'.

I guess you would need a pump to bring the seawater to the device, something to pump it elsewhere (for storage, or irrigation), and also some mechanism to dump the brine back in the sea when you're no longer desalinating.

And for maximum ecological efficiency that could be powered by solar panels.

I wonder how maintenance free you could build such a device, and just leave it to work away by itself for months on end.