The water fountain at Waltham Forest town hall will be switched back on by the weekend, two weeks after a child almost drowned in it.

During the Mela Festival, a celebration of Asian culture, at the town hall in Forest Road, a three-year-old was saved from the water after a quick-thinking lifeguard saw him slip.

The child was face down in the water for around 20 seconds before he was saved.

Soon after the incident, on June 22, the council decided to turn the water off completely.

However, it has been announced that it will be ‘fully operational’ at some time this week after being painted.

A council spokeswoman said people should be reminded they are not allowed in.

"This is an unsupervised fountain, not a swimming or paddling pool, and there is clear signage around it advising people that it should not be entered. That said, given the recent incident we are reviewing how to make this even clearer with new signage," she said.

"The signage already on site clearly states that (people are not allowed in) but we will be reviewing this signage to make it even clearer.

"If someone is seen in it by our facilities staff, they are asked to come out."

Trained lifeguard and sports centre manager Tolga Ulasan of Westward Road in Chingford saved the boy from the water.

He said that he was ‘surprised’ that water that deep was not supervised.