​​The rural population of Aurès, which in the 1960s made up 70% of those settled in these valleys, today represents less than 15%. This process threatens the survival of the community standing as the last custodian of a wealth of knowledge that for millennia has made the area habitable and productive. The main problems that lead the local population to migrate to urban centers or new settlements (often of poor quality) include:

• ​​the complex orography, the loss of efficiency of water management in a context in the process that is heading for desertification
• the limited comfort of traditional homes compared to contemporary standards.

Consequences of these critical issues are environmental loss of aggregation of the social fabric.