Could pumping ocean water into desert areas help reduce sea level rise?
This is no an answer per se, just a back-of-the-envelope calculation for fun.

Lifting 1 kg (one litre) of water up a height of 1 meter uses 9.8 (let's say 10) joules of energy.

Let's say you want to lower the sea level by 1 meter. You need to pump 3.6e17 litres (3.6e14 m2 of ocean area = 3.6e14 m3 to pump * 1000 for litre conversion).

Let's say you want to lift this water up a height of at least 10 meters, so it doesn't go right back into the ocean but rather stays behind some kind of dike. We're already at 3.6e18 J of energy. That's 1e15 Wh, or 1000 TWh. That's more than what the 20 largest power stations combined produce in a year.

This also assumes an ideal, 100 % efficient pump (no energy loss)...