iron golems path into water but do not exit or die

Can confirm (the same 1.15.2)

I'm working with a naturally created village (9 beds and villagers) and it has the one naturally spawned iron golem. I have not left far away from the village in ages (i.e. something like 100-200 game days), and the golem's behavior is, shall we way, mentally challenged. (I'm working both on the village, adjusting things around slowly, and on my own "home" almost right next to the village, so all of the village chunks have been loaded continuously (that is, when I'm playing that world).

At first the golem wandered tens of blocks away from the nearest house, and didn't ever return to the village proper for maybe 20 days. Was useless during a zombie siege as it never even saw any zombies. (Note, zombie siege with 9 beds and 9 villagers, things have certainly changed, for the worse. And not all villagers know always how to get to their beds at the start of the night, so...)

(Also some villagers wandered as far as that golem, but they at least occasionally returned to the village. Only to return to the fields the next day.)

I ended up fencing around the whole village to keep both villagers and golem recently close to where they should be. (It took a bit of fence-gaming to get the golem back to village.)

Then the golem proceeded to take baths in the shallow waters in the village quite often, like twice a day. That is not avoidance, but purely random chance as part of its random wandering.

I made some adjustments and fenced the waters it was most often swimming in.

And behold! Somehow the golem has found its way on that fully enclosed body of water just to get yet another bath - and was unable to get back out. This last part was enough to make me look for info on golems and possible bug reports. Here we are.

Golems are definitely not avoiding water, and can somehow get past fences.

(That was the only time I've seen that golem gone past fences so far, so the outer fences have been working fine. So far. I have my doubts now.)

Iron golems not drowning is WAI. And them doing nothing is also WAI (MC-9537).

I think that drowning/not drowning part was not the issue, but the pathing/not avoiding water likely is. Although, since they no longer die in water etc. the avoidance might have become lesser problem for the golem itself, but they are still so slow when moving in water that they can be considered basically useless for the village once they end up in any larger body of water. And I guess their sole purpose of life is to protect the villagers, which they fail to do (due to many reasons, not avoiding hard-to-travel places being just one of them).

Also, that MC-9537 is sooo old, afaik from the times where golem may have had other differences in their pathing and behavior, so, not sure if that WAI would even apply any more. (Although whether it applies or not, I'd still keep it separate from this pathing/avoidance issue.) At least golems can move themselves out of (some) water these days, although very very... very.. very slowly. (I.e. by the time they are out of water, the village is already dead).

(If considering their pathing in general, they are quite willing to move into places they can not get out of, too, like naturally generated "pits" (without water).)

EDIT: Just found 2nd golem in that village, but no idea when it has been spawned (somewhat recently anyway)... So it is possible (or likely?) that the golem which was beyond fence was a new one, and had been somehow spawned on the other side of the fence (or on a roof or on top or inside a fence)?  Does not change the fact they seem to not avoid water (or other hazards of movement).

Please check if this is still an issue for you in 1.16 Release Candidate 1 or later.

still seems true.  golems can spawn in moving water and  do get pushed by the water but make no attempts to leave the water toa void rusting or dying..  often they can be attracked to the water to kill  a drowned but then when the mobs are dead tehy do not try to leave and return to town.. 
 perhaps golems should patrol town edges and spots in town where light levels are low...  perhaps planting a rose where the light elvels are low and needs a torch 🙂  since you dont seem to want to make a light level helmet or tool for us redstoners to be able to see that function in the game to light things up better. 

The wiki documents behavior/features observed by players (and sometimes contain old and/or incorrect info), and only in some rare cases what is stated by developers. Only in the latter case, when the source of information is linked to (or copied), whatever is stated could be taken as authoritative (i.e. intended behavior) (and not always even then). The linked wiki page does not seem to have reference to anything backed by developers, and the MC-9537 referenced in earlier comment has "Working as Intended" set by a back-then-mod (i.e. not developer, though he might have gotten word from dev, just did not document it so) and only talks about golems not doing anything (not about whether they should drown or not). So, based on the available information (or the lack of it), whether they are supposed to drown or not is not 100% certain. However...

I think they are not supposed to drown. (That would not really make sense, as much as fantasy game could make sense anyway, and I'd think Mojang would have fixed such an obvious thing ages go. Well, the latter point is actually provably not valid.. but anyway.)

My earlier comments summarize the likely real issue(s); eagerness to find a path to places they can not get back out, and not avoiding water. Lots of the other problems are likely just side-effects of those two.

Maybe not drown but rust.. .same mechanic.. 
iron golems are smart enough to go after only enemies. they should be programmed spmart enough not to want to stay in water if they chase an enemy into it. and should be smart enough not to  go into water and GET STUCK there.. 

general wandering pathign should not  have them want to spawn in water or walk into  it without bait. 

but the bug is they get into water and GET STUCK there..  especially if its deeper than 1 block .. 
weather they die there or not is only logical  but not neccisarily intended in game. .
but they definitley should not get stuck in a pond..  inside a village tehy are to patrol 

if they  want to make it better ( mojang) then  it shoudl make some sense.. and perhaps tehy patrol the unlit areas.. 
(i digress but its really lame of minecraft to only use light as a method to spawnproof an area ( eys i kwno theres lower slabs)  but there should be a way to dust a block with glowstone to make it unspawnable so your village doesnt light up like a beacon at night..  ruining the effect of makign a spooky castle thats safe to live in .. )   

but lets jsut focus onthis golem bug of them getting stuck in water. 

Still exists 1.16.1  golems stuck in water . image attached

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Can't be reproduced in 1.19.3.