A 2024 paper describes ongoing community-based work to promote consumption of water in place of sugar-sweetened beverages, SSBs, on Navajo Nation. The Navajo community is disproportionately affected by water insecurity with 30% of households lacking reliable drinking water access. These households must get water from local water filling stations, water trucks, unregulated wells and springs, or by buying bottled water. Cost, compromised water safety, or distance from the water source make these options less than ideal. Water insecurity is known to be associated with greater SSB consumption.  Even in households with plumbed water, a myriad socio-environmental factors have made SSBs a beverage of choice. The Navajo community experiences high rates of diet-related chronic disease including childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes, which can be connected to high SSB consumption. In an early step, the research team gathered perspectives on water from community members of all ages. These revealed the deeply rooted cultural significance of water in connection to traditional spiritual and family values. The team formed the Water is K'é Community Advisory Group—which includes early education teachers, community activists, cultural experts, health promotion experts, parents, and Navajo elders—and an intervention to increase water consumption in young children was developed. The Diné (Navajo) word K'é refers to the “system of kinship observed between Diné people and all living things in existence,” in other words, among us all and also with water itself. The intervention included nutrition education that incorporates Diné culture by using and teaching Diné words and stories about water. This study also proposed that the focus on culture together with plans to increase water access tailored to individual situations would be effective in promoting healthy beverage habits in young Navajo children. The study was conducted by Carmen George, Brianna John, Rachel Whitman, Shine K. Salt, and Sonya S. Shin from the Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Community Outreach and Patient Empowerment Program, COPE, of Navajo Nation in collaboration with Ken Hecht and Christina Hecht from the Nutrition Policy Institute and Laura Vollmer from University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources and numerous community partners. It was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research and Notah Begay III Foundation. The intervention is now being tested thanks to funding from the National Institutes of Health.