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Probably has something to do with the fact that desalinization plants are ridiculously expensive when you live on the same land mass as the factories that are building all the parts for them, and the price rises dramatically when it all has to be loaded up onto container ships, transported to you, and then built by a foreign company, and most of those island nations are incredibly broke.
The problem with GDP per capita is that it conveniently overlooks the possibility that a lot of that GDP is artificially inflated thanks to money that never actually moves around and stimulates the economy, because that country is a tax haven for foreigners and shell corporations, which is pretty common in the Caribbean.
Head to Nassau and walk around sometime, let me know if you still think the Bahamas is in good financial shape.
But I agree, rainwater collection is what they’ve been doing for hundreds of years, they just need to find ways to do it more efficiently.