WORK will be carried out to protect lives and property after a reservoir was upgraded to the highest flood risk category.
Highams Park Lake in Chingford Avenue is currently being assessed after experts decided exceptionally heavy rainfall would put 10 or more lives at risk and cause extensive damage to property.
An Environment Agency flood map shows homes in the Chingford Hatch and Hale End areas would be most at risk.
Erosion of river banks and rising temperatures and sea levels associated with climate change have increased the frequency and severity of extreme weather, such as heavy rainfall.
A spokeswoman for the City of London Corporation, which owns the lake, said: "We are still at the early stages of assessing this but residents should be assured that our engineers and their specialist advisers have the structure under close monitoring and there is no imminent danger.
“Clearly local groups, users and residents will be the first to know just as soon as we get a clearer idea of the issues.
“And we hope to say more once we have gone through the technical information being collated. We expect to say more in September."
The Enironmental Agency said the reservoir requires work to provide “a one in 10,000 years level of protection”.
This means it must withstand the worst kind of flood risk that can occur after the worst kind of rainfall.
Possible work could include extending the size of the lake and building walls which can withstand heavy rainfall, or creating overflow pools.
Laws have been tightened following severe floods in Cumbria in 2009 and Rotherham in 2007.
In 2009, the Environment Agency revealed that nearly 7,000 buildings in Waltham Forest are at risk of flooding if rivers burst their banks.
The flood map shows large swathes of Waltham Forest and the surrounding area would be affected if any of the borough's reservoirs were flooded.
The Environment Agency has not revealed the categories of other reservoirs in the area, or the most recent figures on how many homes would be affected by flooding.
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