New Delhi, March 22 -- In early 2026, a familiar yet more troubling pattern unfolded across South Asia. Delhi's winter air once again turned hazardous, Lahore shut schools due to smog, Dhaka continued to grapple with untreated wastewater flowing into its rivers, and Karachi witnessed a deadly fire that exposed how fragile basic urban safety systems remain. But what stands out this time is not any one crisis, it is how all of them are happening at once, across countries, in different forms.

From Kathmandu's worsening air quality to Colombo's cost-of-living pressures and Kabul's humanitarian strain, cities across South Asia are beginning to feel like variations of the same story. The Asia-Pacific SDG Progress Report 2026 captures this shif...